Dead recordings. Latvala received a mixed response from the larger Grateful Dead organization. As journalist Steve Silberman recalls, Latvala "was used to people ignoring him or thinking of him as low status in the scene... but I actually thought of him as one of the secret buddhas that protected the music... He was completely aware in Zen fashion that his work was the ultimate gift and the ultimate curse. He had to suffer because the collective ethos of the backstage scene was very bruising and masculine. He was in part a stand-in for all Deadheads, for whom [the band's roadies] had contempt." Latvala was known for lending friends tapes from the official Grateful Dead vault. Nicholas Meriwether noted how many of tapes in the Grateful Dead Archive are labeled "'Courtesy of Dick Latvala. Do not circulate!'" In Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, Jesse Jarnow highlights the ambiguous stance Latvala took about these tapes being re-circulated. While refusing to speak to one friend for two years after learning that he re-circulated tapes, Latvala also "loves the Grateful Dead too much and wants the word of their music to travel into every ear and mind possible." Jarnow even claims that Latvala gave taper and future Dark Star Orchestra guitarist Rob Eaton a "near-complete copy of the vault." Death and legacy Dick Latvala died following a heart attack at age 56, on August 6, 1999. David Gans dedicated the August 11, 1999 Grateful Dead Hour to the memory of Dick Latvala. After his sudden death, the Grateful Dead continued the Dick's Picks series. In memory of Dick's known wishes, the Grateful Dead released Dick's Picks Vols. 15 and 16, 9-3-77 and 11-8-69, respectively, which were two of Dick's favorite and most-discussed candidates for future release in his series. In many Dick's Picks albums, the name "LATVALA" can be seen somewhere in the album artwork, often carefully hidden. This was apparently done to commemorate Latvala after his death. The Dick's Picks series gradually came under the creative direction of David Lemieux. Lemieux now releases live concerts under a spin-off series, Dave's Picks. Dick Latvala's collection of Grateful Dead material was donated by Dick's wife, Carol, to the Grateful Dead Archive. As described by archivist Nicholas Meriwether "Latvala’s collection is divided into two major sections... his personal collection of tapes, more than 500 seven-inch and ten-inch reels, and his papers, which comprise more than