Devin Jared Hurd
Devin Jared Hurd, who died of complications related to Covid19 on January 13, 2021, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will be remembered at a Memorial to be held at his parents’ home at 2010 Goss Street, Boulder,
CO on Saturday,
July 31, 2021, at 1 p.m.
Devin Hurd was born in Boulder, Colorado March 8, 1970. His interest in music, both performance and composition, started early, when, at age eleven, he started studying jazz piano with Mary Fields in Portland, Oregon. He graduated in 1988 from Lake Oswego High School, Lake Oswego, Oregon and attended Reed College studying under composer Mario Pelusi. In 1992 he graduated from York University in Toronto, Canada studying under composer James Tenney. In the early 1990s he was invited twice to the Composer-to-Composer Conference in Telluride, CO. He later did graduate work in electro-acoustic music at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire.
Devin had a long career as a composer and sound engineer in the video game industry including the following positions and games: Orca Games (Comp oser/Sound Designer) Humongous Entertainment (Programmer - Freddie Fish 2, Putt-Putt Travels Through Time, Pajama Sam: Thunder and Lightning Aren’t So Frightening) Boss Game Studios (Twisted Edge: Extreme Snowboarding, World Driver Championship, Stunt Race 64) Jade Studios (Composer/ Implementer/SoundDesigner) Kush Games (MLB2K & NHL2K franchises) Big Huge Games (Age of Empires Expansion Pack) 2K Games (Senior Sports Analyst – Audio Department) Day 1 Studios (Audio Lead – F.E.A.R. 3) Ubisoft (Senior Sound Designer – Splinter Cell: Blacklist) Yager Studios in Berlin (Senior Sound Designer)
In 2016 he changed careers and became a full-stack developer. After finishing the Galvanize Bootcamp, he began working for Rural Sourcing (RSI) as a front-end developer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was working when he died. A recognized expert in React, Devin also contributed to the culture of his company. His accomplishments include being the Albuquerque RSI Center’s go-to person for culture screening during interviews. He also regularly contributed to many online channels and posted a new “Dad Joke” daily. Some of his coding work can be seen at github.com/ HurdAudio and // mobygames.com/ developer/ sheet/view/developerId. 133570/
Devin loved contemporary music. He played keyboards, wrote music, and supported small venues that played the kind of music he loved. When he lived in Chicago, he wrote a column for New Music Box, (a digital magazine based in NYC) reviewing the Chicago music scene, including the rise of the noise music movement, which can be seen at (//nmbx. newmusicusa.org/ author/devin-hurd). Earlier, he wrote reviews for Exclaim, a Canadian publication that described itself as “Canada’s authority on music, film and entertainment .” He also regularly reviewed CDs and performances on his blog at hurdaudi o.blogspot.com At the time of his death, Devin’s favorite place online to discover new music was Bandcamp. His personal collection can be found at bandcamp.com/ HurdAudio. The Red Room, a small, well-known venue in Baltimore, Maryland, that supports new music and new music composers, recently remembered him with a memorial evening.
Devin is survived by his beloved partner Ginger DeRusha (Albuquerque, NM), two sons by a previous marriage, Ryan and Mason Hurd (Sarnia, Ontario, Canada). A third son, Alex Hurd, died in 2006, at 19 months. He is also survived by his parents Jon and Jerrie Hurd (Boulder, CO), a brother Ethan Hurd (La Crescenta, CA), and his best friend since childhood, Nathan Grigg (Seattle, WA).
Those wishing to honor Devin are encouraged to make a contribution in his name to Bang On A Can at bangonacan.org or ACLU NM chapter at www. aclu-nm.org.