ELMORE - Robert E., 84, passed away Saturday, July 21, 2007 in Tulsa, OK.

He was born September 28, 1922 in Oklahoma City, OK, to Claude Elmore and Nellie Weiss Elmore. He was a retired physicist in the aerospace industry. He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Jo Ann Elmore. He is survived by: son, Kimberly Elmore, Norman, OK; daughter, Debora Ann Siefried Wind, Tulsa; grandchildren, Theresa Alex Elmore, Norman and Cori Wind, Tulsa; and sister, Helen Pybus, Bellville, OH.

A Memorial service will be held 1:30pm, Saturday, July 28, 2007 at Rose Hill Abbey Chapel. Fitzgerald Southwood Colonial Chapel, 291-3500.

My father, W5JHJ, unexpectedly became a Silent Key on July 21 this year. He had been a member of QCWA for only a few years, though he had been eligible much longer. He was also a member of the OOTC. Health problems kept him from being very active in the club or on the air these past few years, though he always wanted to be more active. I know that he valued his membership in the QCWA.

My Dad was born on 28 September, 1922. He became a ham around 1938-1939 or so (I don't have the exact date, yet) during the Depression, as part of training he received in a National Youth Administration camp (which was part of the WPA). W5JHJ is his original-issue call.

He used that training to obtain his 1st Class Radiotelephone ticket and became the chief engineer at the old KOME AM station in Tulsa and then in his military duty as a stateside LORAN slave station operator on Padre Is., long before it had become a tourist attraction. After leaving the military, he returned to being a broadcast engineer before earning his BS and then MS in physics at the University of Tulsa. He then became an aerospace engineer at AVCO Tulsa Division until AVCO closed that facility. Afterwards, he ran a small business, Electronic Systems, out of his home until his failing sight forced him to reluctantly close the business.

He taught me radio theory and CW, and then he and a friend of his proctored my Novice exam in 1970, where I earned the call WN5CLC. I have remained active ever since. While I was in Colorado, from 1982-1995, we kept a weekly schedule on 40 m 'fone. After I returned to Oklahoma in 1995, that schedule, and his activity, fell by the wayside. I will certainly miss him very much.