[SECC] K4OJ

[Robin Gist]

i'm still stunned from the news.  i was just scanning through the ARRL 10M
log submissions and spotted his call.  it was cold and eerie to think of jim
as a silent key.

jim's indiscriminate enthusiasm seemed to affect everyone he encountered.  i
shared a room with him at the atlanta national convention in '86.  had never
met him before then (and hadn't seen him since), but the first thing i
noticed was that he was one of the more personable folks there.  walking
around the floor of the hamfest was an experience.  it was almost as if he
had never met a stranger in his life.  he seemed to know everyone, and was
very quick to introduce me to all of his chums.  i can still remember him
spotting john/k4bai, and in his best flip wilson impersonation, started
chanting 'here comes da judge!  here comes da judge!'.  one of the more
memorable experiences was later that night.  we (jim, myself, aa4ga, aa4nc
and n5ko) met up at a restaurant in atlanta.  trey's old beatup volkswagen
bug GPF'd on him in the middle of the parking lot.  as the patrons were
watching us push it to a parking space, jim was quick to ease the moment
with a 'i hope none of my friends from the club see me.'

i had just reconnected with him through email, and was recently in tampa
visiting my future in-laws.  i was planning on paying him a visit.  i deeply
regret that i let other things of lesser importance get in the way, because
i never made it over there.  i just figured that there would be 'another
time' in the near future.  i guess all who knew jim -- even from a casual
distance -- sincerely wishes that there could be 'another time' for a quick
visit with OJ.

73/robin/k4vu




-----Original Message-----
From: secc-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:secc-bounces at contesting.com]On
Behalf Of Darin at TelemedInc.com
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 8:12 AM
To: secc at contesting.com
Subject: [SECC] K4OJ


Waaaayyy too soon...

	I just went to QRZ, and then realized, Jim even sent me some advice,
an atta boy stick with it encouragement to one of my Soapbox comments, after
one of the few contests I worked.

	I remember now, it was about rig interfacing, and how not having
interfacing poses a major problem if you forget to manually change bands on
the logware.
	I was left with the impression that interfacing even if for only
that reason alone, was necessary, but that the exact same thing had happened
to him before (must have been in his contest-infancy, obviously).

	His early departure from here really is too bad, not too many people
ever communicated with me personally after a contest, but he was certainly
one of them.

	Interesting his modesty, the only image I have of him aside from his
electronic communication, is the color QRZ.com picture of his sillouette in
front of two monitors (obviously SO2R), dressed in a ball-cap.

	Not enough time passed for me to ever know him, but I am actually
bothered that opportunity will not occur.  I know that as my contesting
activity increased over the years, he'd have been a fun and regular pre/post
game contact.  Not too many people I can name for such claim- as, not too
many people ever talked to me after a contest.

	Naturally, I have participated in so few of them.  Even at that, he
did speak to me.  Since you can count my SECC submittals on one hand, his
response at all, has been significant to me.

	I really am saddened to hear of his premature departure.


	W3DCG, Darin.

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