American Tower Corporation (ATC) co-founder Tom Stoner has passed away at the age of 88.

Stoner, who co-founded the US tower company with Steve Dodge in 1995 as a unit of American Radio Systems (ARS), died of pulmonary fibrosis on October 19.

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– Dignity Memorial

According to a public obituary, he passed away surrounded by his family.

Stoner was an entrepreneur. He previously built Stoner Broadcasting, a national radio company, before he played a key role in creating ARS in 1993 with the late Dodge.

ARS began with 16 stations in seven markets, and eventually grew into the fourth-largest radio company in the US.

ARS grew to 96 stations, and in 1998, it was sold to CBS Corp. for $2.6 billion, a then-record price in the radio industry.

But prior to this, Stoner along with Dodge saw an opportunity in the tower business, and formed American Tower Corporation. American Tower was spun out as a separate company as part of the 1998 sale.

Dodge was CEO of the tower company until 2004 and passed away in 2019 in a cycling accident.

ATC has since grown to become one of the biggest tower companies in the world, spanning 25 countries, six continents, and over 225,000 sites.