Coy was my father-in-law and, along with my uncle Carl, KB5ZI, my amateur radio mentor. His entire professional life was spent at E-Systems in Dallas, which is a company primarily supplying complex communication equipment to the government. He also operated his own business supplying and repairing two-way radios and operating a commercial repeater. Coy was a combat veteran of WWII, having served honorably as an infantryman in the Pacific theater. He was a member of the Ellis County Amateur Radio Club.
As an “Elmer”, Coy was unsurpassed. My entry into the hobby began with my construction of a HW-101. It was extremely well built, not because of my competence but because of Coy’s patience in overseeing and critiquing my efforts. I wish I still had that rig as a remembrance of him.
Coy was always willing to put aside whatever he was doing to go out to his “shack/shop” to look at some piece of equipment some other ham was having problems with. He also put a 440 MHz repeater on his commercial tower. In those days (the 1980s) most vhf/uhf equipment did not come with tone facilities standard, so Coy set up his repeater without a tone requirement so that any amateur could use it.
Coy was a loving husband, father and grandfather. At the time that he passed away I was living temporarily in Houston undergoing in-patient chemotherapy and could not attend his funeral, which I have always regretted. That is one reason that I felt compelled to offer this memorial.