[LeArc] ARLX002 Past ARRL President Robert W. Denniston, W0DX/VP2VI, SK

[Joseph L. Rossmiller]

SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX002
ARLX002 Past ARRL President Robert W. Denniston, W0DX/VP2VI, SK

ZCZC AX02
QST de W1AW
Special Bulletin 2  ARLX002
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  May 14, 2002
To all radio amateurs

SB SPCL ARL ARLX002

ARLX002 Past ARRL President Robert W. Denniston, W0DX/VP2VI, SK

Past ARRL President and DXpedition pioneer Bob Denniston, VP2VI and
W0DX, of Tortola, British Virgin Islands, died unexpectedly in his sleep
May 12 or 13. He was 83. Denniston served as ARRL president from 1966
until 1972 and as International Amateur Radio Union president from 1966
until 1974. He later was elected an ARRL honorary vice president.

''He was an Amateur Radio icon, and he will be missed,'' said ARRL
President Jim Haynie, W5JBP. ''Our condolences go out to his family and
many friends.''

After heading up the ''Gon-Waki'' VP7NG DXpedition to the Bahamas during
the second weekend of the 1948 ARRL International DX Contest,
Denniston--then W4NNN--was credited with being the ''father of the
modern DXpedition.'' The DXpedition's name was a spoof on Thor
Heyerdahl's ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition the previous year.

Denniston has said he didn't realize at the time that he was inventing
the concept, and he credited CM9AA with coining the expression
''DXpedition.'' Denniston remained active on the ham bands until his
death--including operation on 6 meters during the tremendous openings
last year and early this year.

In recent years, he and a group of friends had commemorated the 1948
''Gon-Waki'' milestone each March, setting up vintage equipment and
using simple wire antennas and hand keys to replicate the flavor of the
original DXpedition from his Tortola QTH.

Denniston's other firsts included Clipperton Island (FO8AJ) in 1954 and
Malpelo (HK0TU) in 1969. His strategy of visits to rare prefixes helped
earn him a world record ARRL International DX Contest score in 1960 from
VP1JH (now Belize).

A native of Iowa, Denniston was first licensed some 70 years ago as
W9NWX at the age of 13. He subsequently held W4NNN while attached to the
Pentagon, and later became W0NWX--the call sign he held during his
tenure as ARRL President. He also was a founding member and on the
executive committee of IARU Region 2.

Denniston served for four years in the US Army Signal Corps and was
chief of the radio control section of radio station WAR at the Pentagon.
At the end of World War II, Denniston was the radio operator aboard the
presidential train.

Denniston was ARRL Midwest Division Director from 1956 until 1966, when
he was elected as the League's sixth president. In his professional
life, he was president of Denniston and Partridge, a firm that operated
more than two dozen lumberyards at one point. When he retired to the
British Virgin Islands, he ran Smugglers Cove Hotel in Tortola.

Denniston's wife, Nell, died two years ago. A son and daughter are among
his survivors. Information on services is not yet available.

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