Calumet City native Thomas Tyrrell's career in the music industry struck a chord at his alma matter.

In May, Northwestern University recognized Tyrrell with its Alumni Merit Award.

Tyrrell, 61, recently retired as executive vice president, governmental affairs for Sony Music Entertainment Inc. after three decades in the music industry, spanning RCA Records, CBS Records and Sony Music. He was the lawyer for a Rolling Stones deal in 1983, signed Celine Dion when she was 18, and spent about half his career helping supervise music companies "all over the world," he said.

"What was exciting about a deal (and) the business, particularly when (you) sign an artist just starting out, is to watch the whole process unfold," he said, adding that signing the rare new talent that takes off is like "hitting back-to-back grand slam homers."

Tyrrell, who grew up in Calumet City and now lives in New York City, has always been passionate about music. He and his roommates were evicted in 1964 for playing loud music. As a 1967 Northwestern engineering graduate, his senior thesis was on quality control at RCA Records LP Manufacturing Center. After graduating New York University School of Law, he was a litigator on Wall Street before joining RCA Records in 1980 -- a dream job he never imagined he'd land, he said.

But, "if I had a strength, it was that I wasn't star-struck," he said, adding that he "kept his eye on the deal."

For example, he threw out cartoons Keith Richards sketched while Mick Jagger was heavy in negotiations.

"I was a lawyer on the deal and they went into a discard pile," he said, but looking back, "it was probably a mistake."

At Sony, he started fighting online music piracy in 2001 and with the Recording Industry Association of America and the International Federation of Phonographic Industries developed legislative initiatives to protect copyright and intellectual property laws.

Half of all music is now stolen through illegal downloads, marking a "low point" in his career and for the industry, he said.

"It's incredibly depressing," he said. "There have been so many record stores that have gone bankrupt in the last few years."

The Northwestern Alumni Association is proud of his contributions to the industry, said executive director Catherine Stembridge.

"He has led (RCA, CBS and Sony) and the industry as a whole through difficult new-media transitions, landmark legal battles and critical intellectual property and copyright issues," she said.

Tyrrell has served on the Recording Industry Association executive board and as a board member and legal adviser for the T.J. Martell Foundation, which funds cancer and AIDS research. He has also served as an adviser for Northwestern's Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.