Welcome Dow Garlock; Retired Musician

Welcome Dow Garlock, a retired studio musician who arranged music for “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,” has died at his Van Nuys home. He was 89.

Garlock died Monday of natural causes, said his niece Meredyth Swisher.

Born March 5, 1901, in Lincoln, Neb., he played various horns and the drums in a jazz band in New York City and came to California in the mid-1930s with the cast of George and Ira Gershwin’s “Of Thee I Sing.” He was a studio musician at various film studios, including Warner Bros., Disney and Fox, and later worked as a music copyist and arranger on several films including “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (1963).

Garlock also worked to establish a pension plan for musicians in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands under the American Federation of Musicians, of which he was a member, his niece said. He retired about 10 years ago.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Margaret Garlock; six nephews and three nieces.

A funeral service is scheduled for 9 a.m. today at the Church of the Hills at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, in the Hollywood Hills, which is handling the arrangements. Burial will be private. Donations can be made to the American Heart Assn.