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Samuel D. 'Sam' Canter Mill Valley, CA QCWA # 02684 |
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Name:Samuel D. Canter
SSN:532-12-2164
BORN:15 Oct 1911
Died:2 May 1997
State (Year) SSN issued:Washington (Before 1951)
Name:Samuel D Canter
Social Security #:532122164
Gender:Male
Birth Date:15 Oct 1911
Birth Place:New York
Death Date:2 May 1997
Death Place:Marin
Name:Samuel D Canter
Birth Date:15 Oct 1911
Death Date:2 May 1997
Cemetery:San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place:Santa Nella, Merced County, California, USA
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Sam Canter, W6TSQ, SK As I was assembling this month.s DXer, I learned that Sam Canter, W6TSQ had died peacefully this afternoon May 2, 1997 at his home in Mill Valley, at the age of 85. Sam had medical problems for several years, but had concealed his illnesses from all but a few close friends in the Northern California DX Club. His condition had deteriorated in recent months and he had several stays at a local convalescent hospital. As he grew weaker, he appeared less frequently on the air and on the W6TI repeater. I had only known Sam for a few years, and had finally met him in person during one of his infrequent outings to the weekly lunch gathering of local veteran operators. Sam.s failing eyesight prevented him from driving, and he was ferried about by Hugh Cassidy, WA6AUD, who enriched Sam.s last years with his loyal and caring friendship. Once, during one of the pastrami runs to Brothers Deli in Burlingame, I became so engrossed in a sidewalk conversation with Sam and Cass that my car, only 30 feet away, was ticketed by a meter maid, and I failed to notice until she had mounted her motor bike and left. Sam was a ham for almost 70 years. He was a shipboard operator in the waning days of spark and served in the US Marines in World War II. Sharing his New York origins, if not his era, I enjoyed his caustic wit and rambunctious personality and admired his uncanny ability to bust a pileup. I particularly enjoyed his stories, whether embellished or not, and the late-night repartee on the W6TI repeater. I asked him on several occasions to submit to an interview with a tape recorder running, butalas he would have none of it. So his stories of being mistaken for a bootlegger during Prohibition, for having accumulated copper tubing for coils, of being a vendor in Yankee Stadium during the Babe Ruth era, of being a Sparks in the merchant marine will exist only in the recollections of his friends. Sam was a helluva CW man. I recall how annoyed he was to have copied a high-speed run on 40 and discovered that his copying ability had slipped to 50 wpm. His many friends on the air will miss him. 73, OT. - NI6T