Owsley “Bear” Stanley dead at 76
A man looks at a piece of artwork titled “Skeleton and Roses” that was used to promote a 1966 concert by the band The Grateful Dead during a preview for an upcoming auction in Los Angeles on June 12, 2009.
A 1960s cultural icon, Owsley "Bear" Stanley, died in a car crash in Australia at the age of 76, his family announced Monday.
Stanley worked with The Grateful Dead as a sound engineer and was a prolific LSD producer. He became involved with the hippie movement's drug scene after enrolling at the University of Berkeley in 1963 and subsequently produced an estimated pound of pure LSD, or 5 million trips of the drug, AP reports.
Stanley became a central figure in the rock and drug scene in San Francisco in the '60s.
Celeb Stone described Stanley as "San Francisco's first acid chemist," the Australian reports.
"His death is a grievous loss to his family and the tens of thousands of people from the '60s on who were influenced by his work with The Grateful Dead," Sam Cutler, a friend and former band tour manager, said.
Stanley was driving near the town of Mareeba in Queensland state Saturday and swerved off the highway and down an embankment before hitting trees, AP reports.