Family and friends gathered around his bedside, making comments, praying for his usual funny comeback zinger to come. But it didn’t. There was only silence as he took his last breath. On this day, Aug. 2, 2024, Christopher Richard Stuba of Spring, Texas, died at age 63 of Stage 4 Small Cell Lung Cancer.
To tell the story of this beloved friend in our lighting community, we’re not only bringing in loved ones who played major roles in his life and career— we’re quoting Stuba himself from past interviews this journalist has conducted with him.
Detroit Rock City
Stuba grew up as the middle child, sandwiched between sisters Cheryl and Luann, in the Detroit suburb of Southgate, Michigan. Before he graduated from the Catholic-based Aquinas High School in 1979, his passion for music and The Beatles had already inspired him to play guitar in local bands such as The Push and Oriental Spas. “As a bass player, I toured and recorded with bands from Detroit,” Stuba said. However, his live music career soon led him onto a brighter path, recognizing that someone had to light the band. It might as well be him.
His first industry gig was in 1981 as a stage hand at Harpo’s Concert Theatre, known for heavy metal and hard rock bands, including his own. His first gig as a lighting designer was at the Premier Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan in 1986. “The Premier Center had two shows a night, four or five nights a week, with lots of Vegas acts: Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones and Wayne Newton,” Stuba recalled. “My first act could have been Lou Rawls or Smokey Robinson.”
‘Dear Mr Fantasee’
Cindy Hudson was struck by Stuba’s “excitement, curiosity and wonder of light” when he interviewed at Fantasee Lighting in Ypsilanti, Michigan in1988. “Chris drove 50 miles through snow each way to work in a freezing shop for a low wage starter shop job. He often worked with our electronics wizard Bob Gregory and lighting designer Stefan Graf. Before long, he was designing, repairing and directing lights,” Hudson recalled. “I witnessed his incredible ascent into a world class lighting designer who could coax magic out of a lowly PAR can, then take a deep dive into the birth of moving lights.”
Fantasee’s Stefan Graf has fond memories of prestigious corporate shows and events on which Stuba worked, such as a Dodge Automotive commercial with a custom build pentagon truss, and a press event at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York announcing the first CD player from Philips. But a bigger thrill was when Stuba set up and programmed High End Systems Intellabeams for the Ford exhibit at the Detroit Auto Show in 1991 — the first time moving lights were used at the event. “We will never forget how excited Chris was when we received our first eight Intellabeams,” Graf noted. “He jumped right in to learn how to program them.”
Dave Marks, who is now associate media pastor at the Woodlands Church in Texas, was restoring old theaters around the country during the late ‘80s. After restoring the Fox Theatre and the State Theatre in Detroit, Marks hired Fantasee Lighting to shine on the Off Broadway and variety acts he brought in. “Chris was such a great guy and he worked his butt off,” he said. “We worked seven days a week. He was my right hand man in Detroit.”
Around 1989 or 1990, Marks flew to Houston, Texas to thaw out from Michigan winters and take on a sales manager role for LD Systems. Before long, Marks was singing Stuba’s praises and convinced the company to hire him as well. “So that began Chris’ journey to stardom,” Marks said. “That was the beginning of his professional lighting career outside of Detroit.”
Onward to LD Systems
Stuba’s move—to LD Systems’ headquarters in Houston in January 1994—was more than a geographic move. It was a career game changer. “Chris joined as a Lighting Designer / Tech / Electrician / Shop Help / and Whatever It Takes Guy,” said LD Systems’ Rob McKinley. “Chris was looking for a company to work with to grow his career from grass roots. We needed quality ‘real people’ that got it and were willing to contribute to a team that was growing and finding its place in the industry. Chris hit the ground running, making a positive difference from day one.”
Stuba designed, directed and supervised lighting on corporate shows, concerts, installations, theater productions, trade shows and Texas rodeos. Among concert gigs was his role as the Wybron AutoPilot technician for Van Halen’s Balance North American Tour in 1995 for LD LeRoy Bennett. Just prior to that, he served as lighting director on ZZ Top’s tour, until finally taking it over from LD Larry “Fly” Sizemore through 2012.
“When the door opened for LD Systems to provide touring sound and lighting for ZZ Top for a few years, Chris took on the challenge and excelled,” McKinley explained. “This spring-boarded him into future touring opportunities as an independent lighting designer and he never looked back. We were blessed and proud to have Chris on our team when he launched his career.”
Tony Carey, currently Director of Business Development at LD Systems, joined the LD Systems team in March 1994 as the Director of Production Services Division, so Stuba fell under his direction. “We became true friends right off the bat. Chris was always the first person I went to if there were any questions about lighting,” Carey said. “I had been in the Industry for over a decade by then, but Chris’s knowledge and passion about lighting was already far superior and I welcomed and respected his input.”
Carey said that after Stuba left to pursue his dream of being an independent lighting designer, they still remained good friends. “Chris would sometimes send me a text from Europe, Australia or somewhere on tour to share a photo he took of a city or landscape or to just tell me about the wonderful places he was exploring that day. Chris was like that—always enjoying life and always sharing with others so they didn’t miss out on the wonders of this world.”
McKinley added, “Over his 10 years with LD Systems, Chris’ professionalism, dedication, and growing knowledge earned him the utmost respect. The positive impact that Chris had by his presence directly contributed to the growth and prosperity of LD Systems when the company was becoming established in the special events and concert production markets. Chris was one of our finest members of the family and helped set the bar to a high standard.”
On the Road
Stuba said he loved “just about everything” about his lighting role on the road. “I love the fact that lighting is part craft, magic, art and science. I still love working in old theaters and the excitement of a live show,” Stuba said. “I get to be a part of something that makes people happy and forget about their troubles for a while.”
He was most recently lighting designer and director on The Black Crowes’ Happiness Bastards ’24 tour, and lighting designer and director for Jackson Browne’s tour in 2023. One of his favorite long term tours was as lighting director and programmer for Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band from 2006 to 2019, carrying out the design of LD Robert Peterson. He directed other tours for Peterson including The Beach Boys’ 50th Reunion Tour and The Beach Boys’ Anniversary of Pet Sounds Tour. For Brian Wilson’s solo tours, Stuba was designer and director. A lengthy list of artist tours he directed over the years included Alice Cooper (LD Chris Lisle), Cheap Trick, Eagles, Mark Chesnutt, Jeff Beck/ Johnny Depp (LD Gurn Kaniski) and more.
Proudest Achievements
Chris met Susan in Detroit in 1991, and they married in 1993 prior to moving to Houston. Two adopted daughters came later: Isabelle and Abigail, both in college now, with the proud father frequently boasting of their achievements.
Keeping up with Chris’ busy schedule meant meeting him at shows when she could. Seated by the lighting console, Susan Stuba would eye him with pride, admiring his confidence, his talent and his timing while he worked. “He had high work ethics. He was so passionate about his career. He would arrive early and leave late,” she recalled. “I sometimes would wear the headphones and hear him call out cues to the spot ops. He was super nice to them. He’d memorize everyone’s name. He’d say that people liked that.”
The crowd made him proud as well. “When the crowd would scream out over his lighting cues, it made him feel that all that work was worth it,” Susan noted. But he was also appreciative of two awards presented by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) in January 1994, in recognition of outstanding achievement in lighting design for the Arndale Centre Light Show in Manchester, England.
Remembering Chris
John Dickson of Robe met Stuba in 1994 while moonlighting at a nightclub in Austin, after working at High End Systems during the day. “Chris was traveling with a band called Push Monkey. We immediately became friends. Two years later I started working at LD Systems, and he took me under his wing and showed me the ropes of programming and touring. We did the Houston Rodeo together for many years, among other huge shows. We had a silly relationship for over 30 years, spoke on the phone at least twice a day, mostly making each other laugh. He was a mentor, a neighbor at one point, a groomsman in our wedding, and a best friend.”
Robert Mokry of LightParts was working at High End Systems when the company created custom fixtures and a control system for the Chrysler Styling Dome in Detroit, a project which Stuba and Fantasee were working on, he said. “The fixtures produced were between Intellabeam and Cyberlight —they were basically 1200W Intellabeams. I am told Stefan still has a couple around somewhere.” But topping the technical relationship was a friendship that endured. “I will miss Chris’s sense of humor the most,” Mokry said.
Robert Peterson said Stuba’s tongue-in-cheek sense of humor led to some favorite “Stubaisms” such as: “I’m not happy till you’re not happy” and ‘You’ll never know how much I appreciate you.” Along with his ready wit, Peterson pointed out Stuba’s “magical ability to move anyone he was engaged with to feel special, smart, needed, appreciated. He’d find something to lift you, motivate you, raise you up so you’d give more than you thought you had. He’d always made you think you were in exactly the right place, right now, when you were with and around him,” Peterson said. “I believe this was turbo-powered by his overpowering love of the magic of music, and everything associated with it. He lived every moment not believing that this could actually be a job, nonetheless a career even. Nobody could be more blessed. It infected everything he did, everyone he touched. He never stopped learning, never stopped improving, never stopped lifting up any and all he knew.”
Troy Eckerman of Chroma Designs is a former LD Systems teammate who became a crew mate on ZZ Top’s tour. “He was one of the first guys who used the Wybron automated spotlight system. We worked on many other projects together but ZZ Top stands out over all of them. We were a little crazy back in those days. Possibly a lot crazy! But we grew up like most of us do.” Stuba had a passion for lighting “unlike anyone,” Eckerman recalled. “He lived for it! We had an ongoing argument about tungsten verses LED—he loved tungsten so much. I told him we can do a blind test between LED and tungsten. We never had the chance to do that. So, he wins!” Stuba’s love for photography was ever present on tours as well. “He would go fishing in the bay with us but really just wanted to be with everyone and take hundreds of photos, mainly of the beautiful Texas coastal birds. They were amazing photos,” Eckerman noted, which Stuba posted on www.stubalight.com “I am also happy to say he was a Christian, we talked about it often. It brings me lots of peace that he is in an awesome place now, designing and running shows up there.”
Stefan Graf had more to add. “He positively impacted everyone. But also, his lighting design and direction at live shows were an important aspect to the success of the show impacting countless thousands that experienced it. Lighting is subliminal, but as we know in our industry, helps to generate excitement, direct focus of attention, impact the music dynamics and leave a lasting impression. more than the average person realizes. And Chris was a master at his craft. We will miss him dearly.”
Rob McKinley spoke of qualities that he and the LD Systems team will remember about Chris: ”always upbeat with that unique whimsical smile; funny as hell and always had a comeback to add color; never met a stranger; talented and tolerant and empathetic; and always showed respect for those that came before him in a role. Chris was a genuine person who we are all the better for having had in our lives.”
Chris Stuba gets the last word, and it’s not his usual comical comeback comment. A few years ago, when this journalist asked, “What are your words to live by?” Stuba answered with a paraphrased line from poet Walt Whitman: “Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.”
Chris Stuba was honored with a Celebration of Life and mass service this past week. A Go Fund Me has been set up to help the family. Reach out at
https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-chriss-family-for-urgent-needs?qid=349d4c096724166cedc8471a5261cd08
