Music industry veteran Jim “Koz” Kozlowski died in New York City on Sunday, May 2, after suffering a stroke. He was 71.
Kozlowski was born and raised in East Hartford, Connecticut, the only child of John J. and Adele T. Kozlowski. He attended East Catholic High School, where he was a distance runner and played saxophone. He earned an MBA from Boston University, and it was in Boston that he began a 30-year career in the music industry, first as store manager at the legendary Music City, then as producer of the syndicated radio program “Rock Around the World.”
After moving to New York City in 1979, he worked at a series of indie rock labels, most notably Relativity Records, where as product manager, in a particularly proud moment, he convinced Marvel Comics to allow the use of its character the Silver Surfer as the original cover art for Joe Satriani’s platinum-selling 1987 album “Surfing with the Alien.” In a late-career change, he handled web content for Standard & Poor’s (S&P) before retiring in 2014.
He is survived by his wife of 26 years, MSG Networks audio technician Lula Shepard (pictured with him, above); his mother-in-law Juanita Shepard; and extended family.