Photo of R/O Bob Shrader the very day before his death at 98 years, see how his eyes sparkle when he wears his USMM cap! 73 OM BV SK RIP
Starting
at the age of 10 by building crystal radio sets, he
began the pursuit of his lifelong passion for wireless
radio communication and electronics which began while on
a cruise to Hawaii with his parents in 1923. The ship's
radio operator, a man from Sebastopol, Earl Wohler,
invited Bob up to the ship's radio room. Thus began a
lifelong friendship that lasted many decades until
Earl's passing. Upon graduation from high school, Bob
obtained his amateur radio license, W6BNB, and became a
licensed commercial radio operator. This was at the
height of the Great Depression. Jobs were scarce, but he
was hired on as a shipboard radio-telegraph officer for
the Dollar Lines, something unheard of for someone so
young. Over the next several years he sailed around the
world six times and trans-Pacific many more. Oh, the
stories he has told about adventures in exotic
ports-of-call all around the globe. In 1939 Bob became a
deputy sheriff in Alameda County in charge of
radiotelegraph operations. He married the only love of
his life, Dorothy Fox, in 1941. At the beginning of
World War II he began teaching radio and electronics to
cadets on Treasure Island. He was assigned the rank of
Lieutenant in the U.S. Maritime Service and they
relocated to King's Point, NY, where he instructed
cadets at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. He returned
to his sheriff's position at the end of the war, but
soon found his calling teaching electronics at Oakland
Central Trade School, later known as Laney College. Bob
turned his teaching materials into one of McGraw-Hill's
top selling textbooks, "Electronic Communications",
published in 1959 and in continuous production through
edition 6 in 1991. This book was followed by many
others, published in several languages. He retired and
moved to Sebastopol in 1969 and built his home five
miles west of town at the top of a hill among towering
redwood groves. Bob continued authoring books and
publishing numerous technical articles for national
magazines. He joined the Freestone Fire Department in
1969 and quickly advanced from firefighter to Captain to
Chief of the department. He orchestrated the merger of
Freestone FD and Twin Hills FD in 1978 and served as
President of the Twin Hills Executive Board after that.
In 1997 he wrote and published "Fire Fighting, How It's
Done". Bob was the founder and member of local, national
and international radio organizations, and the recipient
of awards and honors too numerous to list. At the age of
97 he researched and wrote "A Freestone Area Story". He
was active and alert until his final day. The photo
above was taken one day prior to his passing. You could
see the sparkle in his eyes the moment he put on his old
Merchant Marine officers cap. There will never be
another like him.
73
DR
N1EA