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Patrick G. 'Pat' Doherty Murillo, ON Canada QCWA # 30376 |
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Patrick Doherty, age 81 years, passed away Monday September 5, 2016. He was born and raised in Fort William, son of Patrick & Mary Doherty. He was employed at N.M Paterson for 38 years starting as a messenger at 18, retiring in 1991 as Vice President & General Manager of the Steamship Division. During his retirement, he held position of director and chair of the Thunder Bay Port Authority for 6 years. In his early years he coached some baseball but mainly Elks hockey (Pee-Wee & Tom Thumb); picking them up when needed, dressing them and being a role model for good sportsmanship. Pat enjoyed being out in his boat fishing at Kashabowie with Dan Bodrug & nephew Rob sharing a shore lunch of pickerel. He was a long-time ham radio operator (VE3PD) travelling to Irkutsk, Siberia and the South Pacific lugging equipment with him. He served a term as President of the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC). He was a long-time conservative where he met his beloved wife Lisa. They were married Dec 29, 2001 and had 15 beautiful & busy years together renovating rentals, camping at Neys Prov. Park, and relaxing in their pool. He is survived by his loving wife Lisa Sundell, children Eric & Rachael (Brandon), brothers Glen (Gertrude) & Jim (Kathy), sisters Val Kulp & Barbara Darrow (Chris), brothers-in-law Doug Stankey & Richard Stankey, sisters-in-law Linda (Carmine) Felice, Sharon Marshall & Diane Stankey, nieces, nephews, cousins, and extended family. Predeceased by his parents, Patrick & Mary, bothers Alf & Hugh, brother-in-law Ed, sister-in-law Rose, nephews Wayne & Rob. He will be missed by his good friends, Laurie Bridget & Jim O'Brien & both his McDonald's coffee clubs. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at St. Paul's Anglican Church, 808 Ridgeway Street at 11:00 a.m. with coffee to follow.
Past Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) President Patrick G. Doherty, VE3PD, of Murillo, Ontario, died on September 5. He was 81. Doherty was licensed in 1974 and enjoyed taking ham radio along on trips to such disparate locations as Siberia and the South Pacific. Thanks to Lee Hatfield, K2HAT
I was born and raised in the city of Fort William, which now forms one half of the City of Thunder Bay, Ontario. In 1970 the cities of Fort William and Port Arthur were merged into one. I now live just outside the city of Thunder Bay. I have been fortunate to have been able to live and work in the city in which I was born. I was employed by a local steamship company called N. M. Paterson & Sons Limited for 38 years, retiring in 1991 as Vice President and General Manager of the Steamship Division. After retirement I was on the Thunder Bay Port Authority for a period of six years (two terms maximum) as a Director and Chair.
In 1973 I became interested in Amateur "HAM" radio, getting my license in March of 1974. My original call was VE3HFS which I held until 1994 when I switched to the two letter call of VA3GD and changed to VE3PD in November of 1997. Amateur radio has not only been a hobby, but also a passport to travel.
In December of 1976 Bill, VE3AJ (formerly VE3EEW) and myself were sitting in my radio room, it was 72 degrees inside and minus 35 degrees C. outside, when we decided to look at the world map and speculate on where we would like to travel to. The main criteria it was to be a warm location that did not have a lot of resident amateurs. This would make it attractive for other amateurs to make contact with us so they could add another country to their collection. We decided on the North Cook Islands. It took a year to set up, so it was January 1978 before we left for New Zealand and then on to Rarotonga in the North Cook Islands (our calls were VE3EEW/ZK1 and VE3HFS/ZK1) for three weeks. We had shipped antennas ahead of time to Rarotonga and carried the balance of radio equipment with us as luggage. Our first time to be on the other end as a DX station. I did a short write up for our newsletter in December, 1977, DX Vacation
The next trip was in January, 1984 with Bill and I going to Western Samoa ( Bill was 5W1EU and I was 5W1ET) and then onto Rarotonga (Bill was ZK1XO and I was ZK1XM), spending a total time of 5 weeks away from home. It was the first time I ever got hit with what was called in Western Samoa "Aggies Revenge". You don't get too far away from your home base until things settle down. It was called "Aggies Revenge" because it was named after Aggie Grey who owned the main hotel. during the Second World War. Aggie Grey's was quite famous as numerous war correspondents passed through the hotel, in more ways than one. I have written a short journal I call Pacific DX Vacation Trip 2 which I thought you might like reading.
1993 was the year of my next radio trip. I had been in contact with Serge, UA0SR, an amateur from the Eastern Siberian City of Irkutsk since 1991. Jim O'Brien, VE3UA and I were invited to visit with Serge and other Russian amateurs in Irkutsk I have written a short story, Irkutsk? Why not? that you may be interested in reading.
Jim and I kept in contact with our Russian friends using radio and email. In early 1995 Jim and I along with the Lakehead Amateur Radio Club decided to invite our Russian friends to visit with us in Thunder Bay. An interesting venture, of which I wrote up another short story called The Russians Arrived, Conquered and Returned Home. One of the joys of writing these short stories is the opportunity to relive the memories.
I got married in December of 2001 to Lisa, so now there are four people , two cats occupying the premises rather than one person and one dog (unfortunately my dog Lady Anne is no longer with us). My main interests are home and family, also setting up a lot in Rossport Ontario. We intend to spend some time enjoying the fabulous town of Rossport, with it's great harbour and hopefully a little bit of fishing. These along with the other aspects amateur radio, computing, trying to complete my house I built in 1991, latest project was building an outside sauna (which should make for interesting walk to it in the winter time), and meeting my friends for lunch pretty well takes up my time. I dabble in politics as well, but that is not up for discussion on this web page.