RIP

Lawrence 'Ramrod' Shurtliff

PETALUMA, Calif. (AP) - Lawrence "Ramrod" Shurtliff, a longtime crew member for the Grateful Dead, died Wednesday of lung cancer. He was 61.

Shurtliff died at Petaluma Valley Hospital, hospital officials said. A lifelong cigarette smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer only a few weeks ago.

He got his nickname from Ken Kesey while he was traveling through Mexico with the author and LSD evangelist.

"I am Ramon Rodriguez Rodriguez, the famous Mexican guide," he boasted - and he was known from then on as Ramrod.

Shurtliff joined the Dead in 1967 as a truck driver and was named president of the Grateful Dead board of directors when the rock group incorporated in the '70s. It was a position he held until the death of guitarist Jerry Garcia in 1995.

Like the rest of the band's few remaining staff, he was laid off last year.

Shurtliff set up and tore down the band's equipment for every Dead show. He puzzled his way through elaborate situations and circumstances: from the numerous psychedelic dungeons the band played in during the 1960s, to a concert at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt in 1977, to the baseball parks the Dead filled during tours of the '80s and '90s.