Don Wilson, co-founder and rhythm guitarist the Ventures, died Saturday in his Tacoma, Washinngton home of natural causes. He was 88.

Confirming his death to a Seattlle journalist Saint Bryan, his family said Wilspn ‘passed peacefully’. 

“Our dad was an amazing rhythm guitar player who touched people all over world with his band, The Ventures,” said Wilson’s son Tim in a statement.

“He will have his place in history forever and was much loved and appreciated. He will be missed,” he added. 

 Wilson had his four children by his side at the time.

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Who was Don Wilson?

Don Wilson alongside Bob Bogle founded of the Ventures in 1958. They were construction workers in the Seattle area. 

The four-member band first shot to fame with “Walk, Don’t Run” in 1960. The song was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 

“We never set out to be a surf band. Honestly, I love playing surf music — it’s very fun and it makes you feel good. But we never really considered ourselves a surf band. It was just all these things coming together — the surf culture, the electric guitar, Americana — when we were coming up in the early 1960s. Kind of a happy accident, I guess you could say. We play all kinds of music, though, including our ‘Venturizing’ of everything from classical to disco,” Wilson told PEOPLE in 2020.

Their band is credited with popularising the sound of the electric guitar in the US during the 1960s. It included Wilson, Bogle, Nokie Edwards, and Mel Taylor. The Ventures released over 40 albums in their active years. 

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 Bogle died in 2009 at the age of 75 from cancer. Following Bogle’s death, Wilson continued recording and touring with the band before retiring in 2015. Three years after Wilson’s retirement, lead-guitarist/bassist Nokie Edwards died in 2018 following complications arising out of a hip surgery.

Wilson is survived by his four children, Jill, Tim, Cyd, and Staci and his ex-wife Nancy Bacon.