MARION, MA — Former Lexicon president and CEO Ron Noonan, who helmed the company during its formative period (1972 to 1996) passed away January 8, 2020 from declining health issues. He was 89.
Noonan attended Harvard University from 1949 – 1953 and graduated with a B.S. degree in physics. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served during the Korean War as the CIC (combat information center) officer on the Naval Fletcher-class destroyer USS Ammen. After his military service, Noonan worked with technology companies such as Honeywell and DEC.
Eventually, Noonan was contacted by MIT grad, Dr. Francis F. Lee, a friend from his college days, who with Charles Bagnaschi, founded Lexicon in 1971, a company applying digital delay systems to medical systems and language instruction devices. A year later, to help diversify the company in the pro audio market, Noonan joined the Lexicon team and became the company’s CEO in 1973 — a position he held until he retired in 1996.
The rest, as we say, was history as Lexicon developed into a world leader that manufactured and marketed state of the art digital audio devices for recording, film/video studios and live performance, with landmark products such as the Delta T-101 delay; 224, 224XL, 480 and 960 reverbs; Model 1200 Time Compressor; the affordable PCM-70 and LXP-series reverbs; the LARES acoustical simulators and an entire division focused on consumer surround products — to name a few.
Lexicon was also a pioneer in the digital audio workstation market. At AES in 1988, Noonan unveiled the Lexicon Opus, a disk-based, 16-bit, digital 8-track recorder/editor with an integrated 12-channel hardware mixer and, no surprise, extensive signal processing capabilities. It was a stunning achievement, but the staggering development costs of the system put an enormous financial strain on the company. Years later, after focusing its efforts solely on signal processing, Lexicon recovered and prospered.
Noonan stepped down from Lexicon in June 1996, and focused his retirement time on his lifelong love of yachting and sailing, and won many prestigious races and regattas over the years.
His funeral was held in January at St. Rita’s Church in Marion, MA, followed by a reception at his beloved Beverly Yacht Club. Noonan is survived by his wife Ina Anderson, son Richard, daughter Michelle and his sister Carol.
