Tony Martell, a veteran label exec and founder of the T.J. Martell Foundation, which has raised more than $270 million for cancer and AIDS research, passed away Sunday at the age of 90 Billboard reports. While he enjoyed a long and successful career -- most prominently at CBS Records and Sony Music, where he worked closely with Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Jett, Electric Light Orchestra, The O’Jays and many others -- there’s no question that his greatest work was with the Foundation, which was founded in 1975 after his son T.J. died at the age of 21, after a battle with leukemia.

The Foundation has become one of the most prominent and important charities in the music industry, and its annual ceremony is one of the year’s major events. Tony was there on October 18th just five weeks before his death, telling the audience that leukemia is no longer the number-one killer among young people, and speaking proudly about the Foundation’s considerable role in that milestone.

Comments from Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne:

"It saddened me to hear of my friend Tony Martell's passing. Tony was the only record executive to believe in me when he signed me to Epic Records as a solo artist in 1980. He will be missed." -- Ozzy Osbourne

“Tony was always a mensch of a guy, one of the few good ones where you kind of thought, 'Are you really in the music industry?' [Laughter] 

“I met him in 1975 because he'd signed ELO and Jet Records [to Epic] when I was working for my father [manager/Jet founder Don Arden]. When Ozzy started [his solo career in 1980] people turned him down because there hadn’t been a lead singer that had left a band and become successful at that time, but Tony believed in him and signed him -- and how many years later are we, and we’re still signed to Epic and it’s all down to Tony. I must add that Ozzy is truly, truly saddened by this. 

“I don’t think even Tony at the time realized what he was starting -- that [the T.J. Martell Foundation] would become so hugely successful. So many people who were ill reached out to Tony for advice and help -- people in the industry that he didn’t even work with would call him and he’d give advice about doctors, about treatment. He'd made a promise to his son and he wanted to see that promise through, and he went on to help probably hundreds of people. People like him are so rare.” -- Sharon Osbourne