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- Subject: Re: Paul S.
- From: Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2017 23:21:53 -0400
- Delivered-to: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Paul was a great DXer and certainly a hard worker in all the behind-the-scenes activity that kept DX bulletins going out on time with high quality material in loggings, technical, broadcast information, and member "musings" that added the valuable personal touches. Some in the hobby also knew of his teaching profession and his love of writing young-adult literature. He tried to maintain good grammatical standards in a world where English usage seems to get sloppier each year.
I joined NRC in 1972, about 12 years after I had started DXing. I joined IRCA shortly after that. Paul's name was already well known in the hobby at that point if I recall correctly.
In about 2010, when I started connecting with DXers on Facebook, the ability of communications to spread out to a whole range of other topics came about. Prior to that, my mail and email with hobbyists was mostly about the hobby. This was especially true when dealing with list forums and club publications where straying off radio and onto chat about trains, cars, architecture, gardening, woodworking, etc. would meet disapproval.
As the Facebook age came about, Paul was one with whom I could correspond on many subjects outside of, or maybe just peripherally-related to, DX. We chatted photography, travel, and especially music. He and I discussed '60s entertainers that were pretty well known "back in the day" but are nearly forgotten now. Helen Shapiro in pop music and Richard & Mimi Farina in folk come to mind. We both agreed that spring / summer '67 was a peak era, perhaps THE peak era, of rock, folk, and soul music with pop, country, and jazz looking very good too. Paul knew of, and appreciated, the British and Celtic folk-rock groups that made a splash in the early to mid '70s, notably Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span: groups that were all but ruling my turntable (and radio, thanks to Cambridge's WCAS) at a time when most people were talking about disco.
I did meet Paul at one of the NRC conventions. Not sure if it was early '70s Cambridge, MA, one of the '80s ones (NJ, CT), or Nashua, NH in '94. He seemed easy going and not one to goad people into annoying rancorous arguments about politics or religion. When I hooked up with him on Facebook, this mellow + intelligent aspect of his personality continued to shine.
He will be missed. Maybe he's having a cup of java (or glass of beer?) in front of a celestial R-390A in the company of so many other great DXers who went before.
R.I.P. Paul.
Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA
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From: James Renfrew <jim.renfrew@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "am@xxxxxxxxxxx" <am@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Mailing list for the
International Radio Club of America <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [IRCA] Paul S.
I only met Paul a few times, and both were at the conventions in Rochester
and Batavia, the only MW conventions I've ever attended in all of these
years since 1967 or so. But if I do a name search in my e-mail history I
have hundreds, even thousands, of e-mails from me to Paul, from Paul to me,
and from and to all of us on the lists. As a column editor (IDXD) for many
years we were in regular correspondence about content, format and
deadlines. We are all grateful that he took on the Publisher role for a
LONG time. My column dominated my life just before deadlines (initially
all submissions to me were by the US Mail that I had to laboriously retype;
later, e-mail made the job much easier!). So I can only imagine how
difficult the task of pulling together the entire publication must have
been! With such a large network, serving as Publisher of DX News is very
similar to herding cats (on the better days) and keeping the cats from
killing each other (on worse the days). I was always pleased that Paul
kept his head, worked on the basis of key editorial and organizational
principles, and seemed very even-handed in dealing with all of us. I
remember at one of those conventions that Paul kept speaking of Dave Yocis
as "my new best friend", because Dave had just agreed to take on the
publishing. Paul had wanted to turn this responsibility over to someone
else for some time, but his patience was finally rewarded with Dave
(Thanks, Dave!). I also remember at that convention that Paul had loaded
up a truck with a TON of ancient radio-related effluvia from Kermit's
family on the way to the convention, and then he and I took turns
auctioning it off by the box-load! I am very grateful for Paul's service
to our group. For an organization whose members rarely see each other
face-to-face, Paul did great work to hold us together.
Jim Renfrew
Clarendon NY
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