Late Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir credited Colorado Springs school for music career

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Bob Weir, founding member of the Grateful Dead and one of the most influential figures in American music, died Saturday, Jan. 10, at the age of 78.

While Weir's impact is worldwide, few people know that Colorado Springs is where his music career and the Grateful Dead started to crystallize.

Weir attended Fountain Valley School (FVS), a private preparatory school in Security-Widefield, from 1962 to 1963.

According to FVS, that's where he met future Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow. Weir played football while Barlow served as the team’s water boy.

Weir was eventually asked to leave the school. According to The Guardian, he struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia, which led to behavioral issues and his expulsion from several schools.

However, Weir received his diploma from FVS fifty years later.

In 2015, ahead of his farewell tour, Weir returned to Colorado Springs for the school's 85th reunion. He accepted his diploma while wearing a FVS school tie, before playing music for a roaring crowd of alumni.

According to FVS, Weir told the audience that the Grateful Dead could not have existed without FVS, calling his experience "the best thing that ever happened to me."

He also credited his music teacher, Ernest Kitson, with helping him discover music as a profession and his English teacher, Chuck Emery, with helping him learn to love language.

At the event, Weir is said to have performed “Shakedown Street” and “One More Saturday Night.”

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