From enjoythemusic.com:

"The founder of Stereophile magazine, J. Gordon Holt, has passed away. Over the years he, along with The Absolute Sound's Harry Pearson, helped to expand high-end audio awareness through their reviews and editorials. In these early days, many audiophiles eagerly awaited their copies of the most recent Stereophile and The Absolute Sound magazine, with some very interesting dialog and banter as a reviewer in one magazine may have felt differently about a product than the other publication. J. Gordon Holt eventually sold Stereophile to Larry Archibald in 1982, who eventually sold it to Emap Petersen in 1998 and then it went through numerous other owners. Recently, Stereophile has been part of bankruptcy protection and restructuring. Audiophiles have recently been enjoying J. Gordon Holt's writings within The Absolute Sound and other publications. He will be missed by many both inside and outside of the audiophile community" (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/news/).