Jim started telling me about ham radio when I first moved to the Bronx in 1981. I was always fascinated by radios...at the time I was a dispatcher for the NYPD. I owned several scanners, and of course, a CB radio. Jim always told me about how much more fun I could have as a ham.
I think it was five minutes after the FCC removed the code from the Tech test that Jim was knocking on my door and handing me study materials and old QST magazines. I studied, and I passed. With his encouragement, in November of 1991, I became a Tech plus.
Sadly, Jim died the next year. I never got to tell him how much of an impact he had on my becoming a ham. I'm now a General, and I know somewhere, he's proud. Thanks, Jim.