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Jim DeSalvo, 53, was riding his bicycle in town Wednesday when he was struck by a tire that popped off a dump truck, critically injuring him.
Supporters have rushed to help DeSalvo and his wife, Cat, a freelance video editor who married him 20 years ago next week.
Cat “will be out of work for an undetermined amount of time to help him fight through this like the stubborn mule he is and that we all know and love,” family friend Ruth Ozbolt Cleary wrote on a GoFundMe campaign she organized.
SEE: Recovery Fund for Jim DeSalvo Family (GoFundMe)
The couple has two children.
“This will be a long and precarious process,” Cleary noted. “Cat and Jim are both freelance, which means there’s no paid time off and no paid sick days.
“Cat needs to be able to stay by his side as much as possible and to help him and her family through this without worrying about work.”
DeSalvo has engineered, produced and mastered artists for nearly 35 years, mostly at Beanstudio in Wayne, for Unseen Rain Records and other labels.
He worked at EMI music in New York, hung around The Hit Factory, BMG Studios and New York City music venues and has taught recording, mixing and mastering, as well as voice and singing for recording and performance, jazz, rock, classical guitar, drum, horns and piano for several years at the School of Rock and as an adjunct professor at William Paterson University.
DeSalvo was riding his bicycle on the shoulder of southbound Black Oak Ridge Road in Wayne around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when a tire blew out on a 2007 Mack truck fully loaded with asphalt, authorities said.
The wheel with the tire and rim fell off, rolled and struck him, they said.
“Jim DeSalvo is one of the sweetest people anyone could have the pleasure of knowing,” Cleary wrote.
“A true Jersey gentleman, accomplished musician and recording artist, and a devoted father to James and Rebecca and husband to Cat, he is the kind of person who comes to your aid in a heartbeat, any time of the day or night, no hesitation.
“Now he needs our help.”
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