Tom Rabstenek

Tom Rabstenek (born in January 17, 1949 in New York, died on May 13, 2005) was a major player in the recording industry in the 1970s. Later he became a driving force in youth soccer in New York. Rabstenek was a graduate of Fordham University and held a Masters Degree in Communications. On August 16, 1970, he married Diane Peterson in St. Kevin's Church (Flushing, NY).

Record Plant
In 1973, he worked as an associate engineer at Record Plant Studios in New York City. Initially he was hired by , who was the director of Remote Recording, to work live concerts on the road in the Wally Heider recording truck. In a short while he moved on to the tenth floor where he became a mastering engineer at The Master Cutting Room (a part of Record Plant) also known as The Cutting Room. There along with the legendary Greg Calbi (later of ), he transferred the master tapes from the studio sessions onto lacquer discs which were then used to produce records on vinyl. Many of the recording artist who were at the Record Plant spent countless hours in that small room with him mastering their discs. Most notably he spend a great deal of time working one on one with John Lennon.

Mastering engineer credits:

*John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band, Walls and Bridges, 1975, Capitol Records.
*Yoko Ono, Feeling the Space, 1973 Rykodisc.
*Three Dog Night, Hard Labor, 1974 .
*Kansas - Song For America, 1974 - Kirschner Records .
*The Chambers Brothers, Unbonded, 1973 Avco Records .
*Rick Derringer, Spring Fever, 1974 Blue Sky.
*Return to Forever featuring Chick Corea, Where I Have Known You, 1974 - Polydor Records .
*Return to Forever, No Mystery, 1975, Polydor Records .
*Lou Christie, Beyond the Blue Horizon, 1973 .
*Raspberries, Starting Over, 1974 Capitol Records, Inc. .

Holography and blinking lights
After leaving Record Plant in 1976, holographic pioneer , who had worked with him at Record Plant Studios in New York, recruited him to work at Sapan Engineering producing and marketing holograms and laser light shows. There he organized a traveling laser light show and hologram show for the Alan Parsons Project through people he knew at Arista Records. He also participated in shooting holograms of Andy Warhol and Pierre Cardin.

In 1978 he started a business with a partner producing red blinking LEDs on pins that were known as "blippers".

Man from Maglite
Soon thereafter he began a profitable and long term relationship with Anthony Maglica of Mag Instruments, Inc. marketing their Maglite flashlights. He became a key man in their marketing efforts. Rabstenek continued at this for the rest of his life.

New York Youth Soccer
To many families in Manhattan, the most important phase of Rabstenek's life came after the birth of his children, Thomas and Christine. When his son was old enough to play soccer, Tom discovered there was no organized group in Manhattan. First he built the West Side Soccer League into a major program that enabled thousands of Manhattan kids to play soccer. He became a founding President of the Manhattan Soccer Club. He also helped spread soccer to Westchester County to the north. He was affiliated with the Westchester Youth Soccer League. There he was League First Vice President, Chairman, as well as a member of the Arbitration, Seedings, and Sportsmanship Committees. Today he is honored for this work as a . Most of the people Tom worked with on soccer never knew of his previous professional credits. The Manhattan Soccer Club has created the Tom Rabstenek Soccer Citizenship Award for an outstanding graduate of their club.

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