Hi all...the sad news reached me here in Geneva, Switzerland at 0400 local hours when I woke up and turned my blackberry on...imediately it started sounding off with messages that had accumulated while I had beeen asleep...the one that touched me the most was from N4NX announcing that KS4Q had lostthe battle against cancer...

I met Ernie in early 1983, and invited him to join Lee WI4R and myself in operating MS in the CQWW CW test in November 1983...I had to drive up to the military school near the Atlanta airport to pick him up as he was only 14 years old and was a was from being able to drive....as some build up to this story, I had been a member of the FRC Frankford Radio Club in the Philadelphia area...they had successfully designed a memory keyer and it was the first of its kind...I had a prototype of the unit I had borrowed from Chas K3WW and had brought it to Georgia to try in the CQWW CW test...Ernie was excited to try this new memory keyer....so when he sat down to test drive it...he reached up and turned the speed knob as far as it would go to the right and started sending at 50 wpm or so...he just grinned from ear to ear...he was happy with what he saw...we did the contest that year and finished #1 in the 4th call area in the CQWW CW test..and Ernie was a big part of the success...Ernie operated a numer of years from NQ4I...some of the earlt years were M-2 and then M-M at both the old qth and the new qth...Ernie took on the LOTW for the NQ4I qsl needs...he had uploaded over 50,000 qsos and maintained the role as administrator for LOTW for NQ4I, and W4KZ....I never saw anyone as devoted to his children and his wife as Ernie...he was really involved in scouting ....

I last saw Ernie 2 years ago at the Kennesaw Hamfest..he was wandering around in the boneyard..as always he had a big smile and was always upbeat...he had been battleing cancer even before then...we have lost a dear friend...great contestor, father and husband from our midst...