Harry Walter "Bud" Pearson

Harry Walter ‘Bud’ Pearson of Leesburg, Florida died peacefully at South Lake Hospital in Clermont on April 26, 2024, after a short illness. He was 90. Bud was born in the small town of Dexter, in the Thousand Islands region of upstate New York. His father, Harry, sr. was a mechanic who ran a Shell gas station there. In 1943, he and his family moved to Syracuse, NY when his father went to work at Carrier Corporation as a tool and die maker. It was during this time that Bud became enchanted with swing music, the fusion of jazz and popular music, that would become his life’s passion. His love of this music drew him to the technical side of music broadcasting, and he graduated from Smith Technical High School in 1952 with a specialization in electronics. Soon after, he was hired by the Syracuse station WFBL as a radio technician and then moved to WHEN TV (Syracuse’s channel 5) as a broadcast engineer in 1959. He met his future wife Edith ‘Edie’ Cook during this time and they were married in the summer of 1958. Bud’s love of swing music continued to grow and flourish. He became a serious record collector as well as an accomplished drummer and for a while played in a band. He and Edie welcomed their daughter Lisa in 1965 and in 1970 he left WHEN for work with Ampex Corporation, a pioneer of video recording. In 1971, he and the family left Syracuse for Washington, DC and an engineering position with the Public Broadcasting Service. During their years in the nation’s capital, they took advantage of all the cultural events the area had to offer, including concerts at the Kennedy Center, visits to the Smithsonian museums, and outings to Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. The family moved again in 1976 to northern New Jersey when Bud took a job as Director of Engineering with AF Associates, a company that designed and built broadcast studio systems. During that time, he oversaw diverse projects such as the building of remote broadcast vans for US television networks and a studio system for Martha Stewart. He retired in 2002 and he and Edie moved to Florida, settling in the Plantation retirement community in Leesburg. Retirement did not mean leaving broadcasting, rather he took his interest in swing music and developed a radio show, The Swing Era with Bud Pearson which initially ran on WLBE AM in Leesburg. From there he jumped to the emerging internet radio market, where his program continues to run on a number of specialty swing music focused stations including Swing Street Radio, 1940s UK Radio, and KCEA – Home of the Big Bands. From 2004 to 2024 he produced and hosted nearly 475 themed programs in his home studio. When he wasn’t working on his radio shows, he and Edie traveled extensively, visiting most of the countries of Europe, as well as cruising in Alaska, Europe, and in the Caribbean. He especially enjoyed their trip to Spain and Portugal and had fond memories of Seville and Granada. He and Edie were instrumental in founding Corpus Christi Episcopal Church in 2007. They were part of the congregation during its earliest years in a modest building on Rte. 27 and then when it moved into its present location in Okahumpka. He served as senior warden twice and oversaw the appointment of Mother Amanda Bordenkircher, the present priest. He was predeceased by his wife of 64.5 years, Edith A. (Cook) Pearson, his parents, Harry Walter and Evelyn Myrtle (Oswell) Pearson, and his sister, Charlotte Marie Pearson Bausinger. He is survived by daughter Lisa E. Pearson (husband Carl Iannuzzo) of Boston, MA, as well as a number of nieces and nephews in New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere. A memorial service will be held at Corpus Christi Episcopal Church, Okahumpka, Florida, on November 9, 2024 at 2pm. In lieu of flowers, please make donations in his name to Corpus Christi Episcopal. Burial will be in the Lowell Cemetery, Westmoreland, NY in 2025. Arrangements entrusted to Beyers Funeral Home of Leesburg, Florida.

Harry Walter "Bud" Pearson

January 17, 1934 - April 26, 2024