Paul Klipsch, 98; Founded Audio Specialty Company

Paul W. Klipsch, 98, who pioneered high-quality audio systems, died Sunday of causes related to aging. He died in Hope, Ark., where he founded his company, Klipsch Audio Technologies, in 1946.

Klipsch, a native of Elkhart, Ind., was the son of a mechanical engineer and became intrigued with audio when his mother moved the family phonograph into a corner, unexpectedly improving the sound. He built his first speaker at 15. He graduated from New Mexico State University, now home to the Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and earned a master’s degree at Stanford.

He designed radios and maintained electric locomotives in Chile for General Electric and worked briefly in Texas as an oil company geophysicist. Klipsch discovered Hope, President Clinton’s boyhood home, when he was stationed in the area during World War II.

After the war, the former lieutenant colonel remained there and bought a building to manufacture the folded corner woofer he invented and called the Klipschorn. Klipsch’s original building in Hope is now the Klipsch Museum of Audio History.