Kevin Lightner was born on August 10, 1962 in Hollywood, California. He was raised and educated both in the San Fernando Valley and Orange County. He grew up with two main interests: electronics and music. He combined these interests into a career in the mid 1970’s when he built his first PAiA synthesizer kit as a teenager. A few years later, he was able to buy music equipment, which included an Octave Cat SRM and a Polymoog. He played in bands as a teen, doing the occasional repair on a synth. After a few years of using temp agencies to find work using his electronics skills, he landed a job at Roland US in the Service Department in 1984. He stayed there until 1988, when he made the decision to become a freelance technician. He was known as an expert in restoration, repair, and modification of vintage analog synthesizers. He did so until late 2013, when he was forced to retire for medical reasons.
On July 14, 2014, a few weeks shy of his 52nd birthday, he ended a very rough 7 year battle with chronic pain and depression. Well, the battle started decades ago, really. The past 7 years presented nearly continuous suffering that wore him down as it robbed him of the ability to work.
Kevin was a brilliant man with a great sense of humor. He also loved cats, computers, music, art, movies, history, animals, and exchanging knowledge and ideas with his friends and wife.