Chuck Surack is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist and musician, best known as the founder of

Sweetwater Sound Sweetwater is an American musical instrument retailer. Based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sweetwater is the largest online retailer of musical instruments and pro audio equipment in the United States. History Chuck Surack established the company in ...

, one of the world's largest retailers of musical instruments and professional audio equipment.

Biography

Early life

Surack was born in

Waverly, Ohio Waverly is a village in, and the county seat of, Pike County, Ohio, United States, located about south of Chillicothe. The population was 4,165 at the 2020 census. The town was formed in 1829, as the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal al ...

, his family later relocating to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Surack was active in the

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts or Boy Scout may refer to: * Members, sections or organisations in the Scouting Movement ** Scout (Scouting), a boy or a girl participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouting America, formerly known as Boy Scouts of America ...

, and attended Wayne High School, where he played

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

in the school's

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...

. Following high school, Surack toured with a

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

as a saxophone player and

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

. In 1979 Surack decided to stop touring, and returned to his hometown of Fort Wayne, where he has continued to work as a musician, playing saxophone and keyboard as part of two bands, Prime Time and the Sweetwater All Stars. He also created a mobile 4-track

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...

in his

Volkswagen Bus Volkswagen Bus or Volkswagen Van is a type of vehicle produced by Volkswagen/Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. There have been a number of notable versions of it produced. Volkswagen Bus light commercial vehicles Six generations of Volkswagen Transp ...

Career

Sweetwater Sound

Surack soon established a recording studio in his home and named it Sweetwater Sound. In 1985, he purchased a

Kurzweil K250 The Kurzweil K250, manufactured by Kurzweil Music Systems, was an early electronic musical instrument which produced sound from sampled sounds compressed in ROM, faster than common mass storage such as a disk drive. Acoustic sounds from brass, ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...

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 Kenneth Ray Rogers (born Kenneth Donald Rogers) (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particul ...

and

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

. 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.

Surack Enterprises

Beginning in 2010, Surack acquired and founded several other businesses, which came to be referred to as the Sweet Family of Companies and later became subsidiaries of Surack Enterprises. *SweetCars In February 2010, Surack submitted a proposal to convert an abandoned building on Jefferson Boulevard in Fort Wayne into a luxury

car dealership A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive maintena ...

to the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission, which agreed to transfer the property to Surack in exchange for his financial commitment to improve the property in order to open and operate the dealership. The car dealership, SweetCars, opened in December 2011. *Sweet Aviation In August 2011, Surack acquired the assets of Smith Field Air Services and established Sweet Aviation, a Fort Wayne

flight school Flight training is a course of study used when learning to aviator, pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted un ...

. *Longe Optical In September 2012, Surack purchased the assets of Longe Optical, a Fort Wayne-based

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesal ...

of prescription eyewear and prescription

sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names Sunglasses#Other names, below) are a form of Eye protection, protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damagin ...

with 5 storefronts. *Sweet Helicopters In 2012, Surack founded Indiana Helicopters, a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

charter service based in

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart–Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend–Elkhart–Mish ...

, and purchased Helimotion, an aerial film production and executive charter service based in Chicago, two years later. In August 2017 Indiana Helicopters merged with Helimotion to form Sweet Helicopters. *Aviation Specialty Insurance Surack also acquired Aviation Specialty Insurance, a company formerly known as Corporate Aviation Insurance Group (CAIG) that provides general

aviation insurance Aviation insurance is insurance coverage geared specifically to the operation of aircraft and the risks involved in aviation. Aviation insurance policies are distinctly different from those for other areas of transportation and tend to incorporat ...

services. *The Clyde Theatre In 2018, Surack increased his majority ownership stake to assume full ownership of The Clyde Theatre, a Fort Wayne

music venue A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Ty ...

and event center. *The Club Room at the Clyde In 2019, he opened The Club Room at the Clyde, a

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

adjacent to the Clyde Theatre, *Crescendo Coffee and More In the summer of 2020, Surack opened Crescendo Coffee and More, a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

adjacent to the Club Room at the Clyde. *

Enstrom Helicopter Corporation The Enstrom Helicopter Corporation is an American helicopter aerospace manufacturer, based at the Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport in Michigan, United States. The company was founded in 1959 by Mining engineering, mining engineer Ru ...

In May of 2022, Surack Enterprises acquired the assets of Enstrom Helicopter Corporation, an American

aerospace manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of Aircraft design process, designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a hi ...

based in

Menominee, Michigan Menominee ( ) is a city and the county seat of Menominee County, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsula. The population was 8,488 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Menominee County, Mi ...

. *The Pearl In 2022, the Suracks announced The Pearl, a 7-story residential, commercial, and entertainment

mixed-use development Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...

located at 248 W. Main Street in downtown Fort Wayne, with anticipated completion in late summer 2024. *''whatzup'' Surack is the owner of ''whatzup'', a tabloid and website that focuses on entertainment. In 2020, Surack purchased the former headquarters of

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut, LLC is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by brothers Dan and Frank Carney. The chain, headquartered in Plano, Texas, operates 19,866 restaurants worldw ...

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. In May 2024, Surack became a co-owner of the

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

-based

Indy Eleven Indy Eleven is an American professional association football, soccer team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 2013, the team made its debut in the North American Soccer League (2011–2017), North American Soccer League (NASL) in 2014, b ...

professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team.

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, Taylor University, 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. Surack is the past board chair for the

Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra The Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The orchestra's primary concert venues are the Embassy Theatre and the Auer Performance Hall at Purdue University Fort Wayne. The orchestra's current ...

, Global Leadership Summit & Beyond Fort Wayne, and the

Fort Wayne Children's Zoo The Fort Wayne Zoo is a zoo in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. Since opening in 1965, the 1,000-animal zoo has been located on in Fort Wayne's Franke Park. The Fort Wayne Zoo is operated by the non-profit Fort Wayne Zoological Society under ...

and previously on the Board of Directors of the

NAMM Foundation The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) is a not-for-profit global trade association dedicated to the music products industry. Originally founded in 1901, NAMM is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and represents 15,000 global memb ...

, and NAMM Board Current Board Chair of the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Indiana, and currently serving on the Canterbury School, EasterSeals Arc, Fortitude Fund, and Love Fort Wayne boards.

Personal life

Surack is married to his wife Lisa, with whom he has two stepsons, Tyler and Cameron, and a daughter, Adderly (whose name was influenced by the name of saxophonist

Cannonball Adderley Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered by the general public for the 1966 soul ...

). He has cited his father, Jim, a chemical engineer and airplane pilot, as a major influence.

Recognition

* 1997 Ernst and Young 1997 Northern Indiana Entrepreneur Of The Year * 2008 BCA 10 Award presented by the Business Committee of the Arts, in recognition of corporate support of the arts * 2008 Appleseed Award presented by Representative Mark Souder in recognition of the inclusion of numerous environmentally-friendly features at Sweetwater Sound's campus * 2009 Governor's Arts Award, presented by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in recognition of ongoing commitment to and support of the arts. * 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award awarded by the University of St. Francis School of Creative Arts for integrating electronic music instrument technologies, computers and traditional music practices into a modern art and science * 2009 Lugar Energy Patriot awarded by Indiana Senator Dick Lugar in recognition of leadership and initiative in taking action to improve America's energy security and promoting sustainable energy production and use. * 2012 Doctorate of Humane Letters from Indiana University * 2012 Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Saint Francis * 2013 Inducted into the Indiana Academy by the Independent Colleges of Indiana for lifetimes of achievement and contribution to the state of Indiana * 2014 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the American Red Cross for humanitarian contributions to the local community * 2014 Leaders of Character Award from the Anthony Wayne Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America * 2015 Maclyn Parker Swagger Award by Greater Fort Wayne * 2015 Red Coat recipient from Mad Anthony Children's Foundation for recognition of accomplishments that help make Fort Wayne and the state of Indiana a better place * 2015 Citizen of the Year from the Journal Gazette * 2016 Lion Award by the Fort Wayne Urban League for immense community contributions and accolades * 2017 Legends of Leadership Award from the editors of Fort Wayne Business Weekly * 2018 awarded The Sagamore of the Wabash by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb * 2018 Doctorate of Humane Letters from Taylor University * 2018 Inducted into the Indiana Boys and Girls Club Hall Of Fame * 2019 Indiana Chamber of Commerce's 2019 Ogletree Deakins Business Leader of the Year * 2022 Doctor of Humane Letters from Trine University * 2022 Visionary Leadership Award - Believe in Dream * 2023 Bridge of Grace- Catalyst of Hope Award * 2022, 2023, 2024 IBJ's Indiana 250 - Most Influential Business Leaders In Indiana

References

External links

Chuck Surack Interview
at NAMM Oral History Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Surack, Chuck Living people Businesspeople from Indiana Philanthropists from Indiana American chief executives Fort Wayne, Indiana, People from People from Allen County, Indiana People from Waverly, Ohio Year of birth missing (living people)