[SFDXA] Fw: ARLX002 Past ARRL President Robert W. Denniston, W0DX/VP2VI, SK

[Bill Marx]

> 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.
> NNNN
> /EX