Dick was my "Elmer" starting in 1953
and a great friend for more than 50
years.
Dick was blinded in combat in WW II
but never let the absence of sight slow
him down. Our neighbors were nervous
when Dick worked on his antennas atop
his 57' windmill tower. They told him
so and he said, "Heck! I'll work on
'em at night; it's all the same to me."
Once when we were affected by an odd
noise on 20M that came on every night
at about 8pm and stopped at about 1AM.
One night Dick called and asked me to
come up to his home. It was a school-
night and I was only 14 so I snuck out.
I found him on his front porch, bundled
up in a Makinaw and carrying and old
Zenith all-wave portable radio; about
the size of a sewing machine case. He
said that we were going to go up and
down the alleys behind the homes in our
neighborhood and that I was going to
climb the fences and pull the main
power on the house while he listed on
the portable. The theory was that when
the noise stopped, we'd found the
house.
Imagine this: A blind man and a kid,
late at night, pulling the power on
houses and listening for 20M
interference to stop! Today, we'd both
have been shot!
But we found the house; the culprit
was an electric heating pad and, when
Dick bought them a new one, 20M cleared
right up.
There's a web page dedicated to
Dick; Click
href=http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanav
eral/Hangar/4073/w5tiz.html>HERE
.
I loved this man.
Chaz W4GKF