Don Salo, 62, shared the fun

A step into Don Salo’s basement was a step into a movie theater lobby draped in dark blue curtains and complete with a marquee, a ticket booth and a bar with a popcorn machine.

Part those deep blue curtains, plop down in one of the four theater seats or on the leather couch and choose among 400 movie DVDs and countless music CDs.

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Family photo

Don Salo, who retired from IBM and also founded a security-alarm business, is shown with his son, Eric Salo of Sandy Springs, skiing in Big Bear Lake, Calif.

“It was all computerized,” said his friend Andy Smith of Buckhead who helped Mr. Salo build his high-tech media room. “You just push a button and the lights dim, the curtain opens, and the movie begins. If you were watching ‘Top Gun,’ you thought you were sitting on the top deck of the aircraft carrier.”

Mr. Salo, an IBM retiree who founded his own security- alarm business, favored action movies but included such sentimental favorites as “The Sound of Music” in his video library, too.

The home theater was just one of Mr. Salo’s toys that he shared with his friends and his son, Eric Salo, of Sandy Springs. He wanted others to enjoy their play, and in 1995 donated the money to install lights at the Riverwood High School athletic field. Taking it a step further, Mr. Salo qualified for a school bus driver’s license so he could drive his son’s baseball team around, Mr. Smith said.

“He was one of the cheapest guys I knew but also one of the most generous,” said his friend Frank Bellavia of Atlanta. “If it was for a friend or his family, he spared no expense. He was super frugal, but when one of his employee’s wife needed an operation they couldn’t afford, Don just gave him the money.”

The memorial service for Donald Roy Salo, 62, will be 2 p.m. Friday at H.M. Patterson & Son, Arlington Chapel. The body will be cremated. He died of a blood clot Aug. 15. He had just finished jogging and was in the driveway of his Sandy Springs residence sending a text message when he collapsed, said his sister, Nancy Clayton of Austin, Texas.

Mr. Salo, a graduate of the Westminster Schools, earned his master’s degree in engineering from Georgia Tech. From childhood when he played with his erector set, he loved anything mechanical and figuring out how things work, Ms. Clayton said. He was the general contractor for his own house and helped Mr. Smith remodel his condominium.

Before he retired from IBM in 1994, Mr. Salo had started a security-alarm business as a hobby, his sister said. In retirement, he turned Design Security Systems into a full-time business serving about 1,000 residential and commercial customers in the Buckhead and Sandy Springs areas.

“He never advertised,” Mr. Smith said. “All his business came from referrals. Don handled all the sales, billing and service calls. He designed very sophisticated systems.”

No matter the time or day, Mr. Salo personally responded to every service call. “You got service you don’t get from other people,” Mr. Smith said. “If he said he would be there at 2 o’clock, he was there at 2 o’clock.”

Mr. Salo, president of his Mount Vernon Parkway neighborhood association, spent much of his play time at his Lake Lanier house, where he built a first-class hot rod. “It was low-slung, yellow, topless with a brass radiator and fittings,” Mr. Smith said.

“This was really something to see.”

Skiing on water or snow, boating, flying his fleet of remote-controlled airplanes or playing his favorite computer game “Quake,” Mr. Salo enjoyed sharing his fun.

“He had two Sea-Doos, two ATVs, always two of everything,” Mr. Smith said. “For him, it was more fun playing with Eric or a friend.”

Survivors other than his son and sister include a granddaughter.