Brock Lowry Thorson

Brock Lowry Thorson, 68, passed away peacefully on August 21, 2026. Known to family and close friends as Bebop —a nickname that his young nieces gave to their jazz-playing uncle—Brock's life was a fitting embodiment of the jazz form: bursting at the seams with energy, full of charm, warmth, generosity, an infectious spirit, and a virtuosic creativity and lust for living that spread joy and radiance throughout every room he entered.

Musician, craftsman, visual artist, pilot, lifelong lover of sports cars, world traveler, brother, son, loving partner, uncle, and devoted friend, Brock was born in July 1958 to George, an architect, and Ann, interior designer, in Grand Junction, CO. and will be dearly missed by his partner of 22 years, Mary Gail Hall; brother, Craig Thorson; nieces, Alexandra and Sabrina Thorson; and a rich community of friends.

Brock's childhood was spent in Applewood, a bucolic suburb nestled in the foothills of Denver, where he and his brother and neighborhood kids indulged in snowball fights and elaborate igloos, go-kart races (sorry about that hit-n-run, Teddy Bridges!), creating haphazard zip-lines —and discovering a love for living life to the fullest —even when a little danger might be involved.

Ever an active, outgoing, and voraciously curious kid, Brock loved tinkering with machinery —whether it was lawn mowers, mini-bikes, or go karts—and developed a passion for tasting all of life's treasures, beginning with an early penchant for swallowing everything from pennies to an open safety-pin, which miraculously came out later closed, much to the relief of his parents.

Brock developed, what would become life-long passions, unwavering interest in art, music, and shop class while attending Manning Jr High; which eventually led him to pursue a Fine Arts degree, studying at California College of the Arts in Oakland and at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he received his BFA (studying along the way with such notable artists as Laurie Anderson). This period also laid the foundation for his path as a musician —fueled by an initial foray in playing "Smoke on the Water" on electric bass for a 9th grade talent show.

Tinkering and shop-class also helped shape a healthy—or unhealthy, depending on who you asked—passion for sports cars and engines. Prior to acquiring a 1958 Triumph TR3 that would consume the better part of 40 years of restoration and upkeep, Brock got his feet wet by learning to hotwire his friend Mike Hotter's sports car and joyriding it around town. Feeling pleased with himself, he and Mike snuck the car back, parked it exactly as they found it, only to discover that his brother Craig has simultaneously hotwired Brock's Fiat and was on his own joy ride. From this period onward, inspired in part by wanting to be James Bond and by his father owning a number of English sports cars, Brock went on to recondition and own more than 20 labor-intensive cars over the years.

After earning his BFA, Brock was awarded a scholarship to play bass in an American youth symphony and tour Italy for several months (often having to interrupt concerts to slip out the stage door to avoid the Agenzia delle Entrate, to whom the orchestra owed back taxes). That experience of being a young artist in the old world planted the travel bug—which would lead him to move to Europe, where he lived for almost 3 years, in the Netherlands and fortuitously, for his burgeoning interest in jazz, in Paris —amid the ex-pat American jazz community, which included, among others, Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy, Kent Carter, Bobby Few, and many others.

While living in Paris, Brock busked for cash, drove a wildly-painted car with questionable brakes and was known as the "Jazz Taxi" driver, squatted with a group of African musicians in a building that got power by plugging an extension cord into a McDonald's sign, and learned, since he had no money for the metro, to lift his upright bass like a ballerina over the turnstiles as he jumped after to evade the authorities.

Coming back to the U.S., Brock spent time with the Des Moines Symphony, in the bass section, appearing on a recording with the group in the mid 1980s, before deciding to shelve music and pursue a career as a pilot. Among his early flying gigs, Brock flew a crop-duster single-prop plane, leaning over the side to take aerial photos of Iowa farms for a company that made a business of selling them to farm owners.

Brock then moved to the Twin Cities where his brother Craig was living and flew puddle-jumper commuter flights with Northwest Airlines for a number of years. Eventually becoming a senior captain, Brock worked with Warren's Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway-owned NetJets, often shepherding the rich and famous from coast-to-coast, including Steve Miller of Steve Miller Band fame, famed vintner Michael Mondavi, George HW Bush, and Ellen Gordon, The Tootsie Roll heiress, among other notables. Following a stroke in 2004, Brock's professional flying carrier ended (when it was discovered he also had type 2 diabetes).

Throughout the late 80s and 90s, Brock balanced his "jetsetting international man-of-mystery" reputation with one foot in the world of flying and the other knee-deep in the Twin Cities jazz scene —working with a rich array of artists, including the Bill Lang Trio, the trio of Jimmy "Jimmieapolis of St. Paul" Wallace, and the hardbop-tinged Size Six, among many others. After discontinuing his flying career, Brock began focusing on work as a luthier, restoring, repairing, and selling string instruments with an emphasis on 19th century European contrabasses, while also re-engaging his love of classical music as a founding member of the Wayzata Symphony Orchestra.

In 2003 Brock met Mary Gail Hall, who would become the love of his life. Never one to step into things cautiously, their first date involved him telling her he wanted to take her out to see the fall colors-however he neglected to tell her that it would be in a plane until he pulled into an airport and opened a hanger. As fate would have it, like the manic go-kart races or ill- conceived zip-lines of his youth, things didn't go entirely to plan. The flight involved flying low over the trees to take in the colors and ended up straying into President Bush's restricted airspace, necessitating ditching the plane and high-tailing it before getting thrown in the slammer. And so a marvelous love began!

Brock is preceded in death by his parents George Thorson and Ann Lowry Newland and is survived by his loving partner Mary Gail Hall; his brother, Craig Thorson; and his nieces, Alexandra and Sabrina Thorson. A celebration of life is currently being planned for early October —details to be announced soon. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), are preferred.