Born Robert Arthur Moog, May 23, 1934, in New York, NY; died of brain cancer, August 21, 2005, in Asheville, NC. Engineer and inventor. Robert Moog (pronounced mogue) was credited with creating the first practical synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, as well as other electronic equipment related to the production, performance, and recording of popular music. His synthesizer, in particular, was considered key to the development of popular music in the 1960s and beyond. Yet Moog did not take much credit for his creation. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times quoted Moog as saying, 'I don't design stuff for myself. I'm a toolmaker. I design things that other people want to use.'

Born in 1934 in New York City, Moog was the son of an electronics engineer father and piano teacher mother. As a child, Moog was forced to take piano lessons because his mother wanted him to be a concert pianist. However, Moog took after his father and was interested in building things. When he was 14 years old, he built a Theremin, the first electronic instrument in the world. A Theremin is made of vibrating radio tubes and played by moving the hands around the tubes. Moog continued to build Theremins and kits to make Theremins through high school, enabling him to pay for much of his college education.

After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, Moog earned his undergraduate degree in physics from Queens College. In 1957, he graduated from.