Chuck Surack
Chuck Surack is an American entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist, and musician, best known as the founder of Sweetwater Sound, a leading retailer of musical instruments and professional audio equipment. Surack single-handedly built Sweetwater with virtually no assistance from others. Biography. Early life. Surack was born in Waverly, Ohio, his family later relocating to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Surack was active in the Boy Scouts, and attended Wayne High School, where he played saxophone in the school's marching band. Following high school, Surack toured with a band as a saxophone player and keyboardist. In 1979 Surack decided to stop  touring, and returned to his hometown of Fort Wayne, where he has continued to work as a musician to the present day, playing saxophone and keyboard as part of two bands, Prime Time and the Sweetwater All Stars. Upon settling back in Fort Wayne in 1979, Surack created a mobile 4-track recording studio within his Volkswagen Bus. Career. Sweetwater Sound. Surack later established a recording studio in his home and named it Sweetwater Sound. In 1985, he purchased a Kurzweil K250 keyboard for use in the studio and commissioned an engineer to reverse engineer it in order to develop  and use sounds of his own design, establishing Surack as an expert within the K250 community. Sweetwater Sound was eventually selling K250 sound libraries and became established as a Kurzweil K250 reseller. Being part of the small professional K250 community allowed Surack to develop relationships and work with artists such as Kenny Rogers and Stevie Wonder. Sweetwater began selling more and more pro audio equipment, and eventually Sweetwater's retail business surpassed its recording studio business. By 2016, Sweetwater had become the largest online retailer of music instruments and equipment in the U.S. Surack remains Founder and Chairman of Sweetwater  Sound, with John Hopkins taking over as CEO in July 2021. Sweet Family of Companies. Beginning in 2010, Surack acquired and founded several other businesses, which have come to be referred to as the Sweet Family of Companies. In 2020, Surack purchased the former headquarters of Pizza Hut of Fort Wayne and improved it to create The Kaizen Center. Originally intended as a corporate event space, the facility now serves as the corporate offices for Surack Enterprises and its two subsidiary organizations: the Sweet Family of Companies and the Surack Family Foundation. Philanthropy. Surack and his wife Lisa contribute to  more than 600 nonprofit organizations annually, with past charitable donations to the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Arts United of Fort Wayne, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, Easter Seals ARC of Northeast Indiana, and the Voices of Unity Youth Choir. Surack and his wife also established the Chuck and Lisa Surack Endowed Scholarship for Music Technology at the University of Saint Francis. In July 2021, Surack and his wife Lisa established the Surack Family Foundation, with the intention of providing grants to nonprofits in the areas of music and arts that they have historically supported, but also mental health , teenage suicide prevention, child and family welfare, and economic development in Northeast Indiana. He is currently the board chair for the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, Global Leadership Summit & Beyond Fort Wayne, and the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo and holds positions on the Board of Directors of the NAMM Foundation, Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Indiana, and Canterbury School. Marriage and children. Surack is married to his wife Lisa, with whom he has two stepsons and a daughter, Adderly (whose name was influenced by the name of saxophonist Cannonball Adderley). He has cited his father, Jim, a chemical engineer and  airplane pilot, as a major influence.