The Collins Story
View presentations and interviews with Michael Collins talking about the achievements of his father, Arthur A. Collins, and the Collins Radio Company. Learn More»
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The Story in the Cards part X. Three last mini-bios taken from the QSL (post)cards sent to Arthur Collins and preserved by his son, Michael.
Norman H. Miller (1904-1980) (1AWE) of Providence, RI got his ham license in 1921. His father was a buyer for a local paint company. The city had a large and active radio club, the Providence Radio Association (PRA). Its roster numbered 101 in 1923, 31 had radio licenses; Miller served as Secretary. In '23 the club sponsored a contest among the members to identify the best receiver; Miller took second in the 1-tube class. Reportedly there's a photo in the Providence Journal, but we haven't been able to track it down yet. Miller worked as a sales and repairman and for a radio company after graduating from high school. He married Margit (Anderson) from Sweden c.a. 1936, and they had a son and daughter together. In WWII he worked for Brown & Sharpe a major U.S. machine tool builder founded in Providence. After the war Norm worked for Tri-State Wholesalers, an RCA dealer. See him at Find a Grave memorial # 59805566.
Ernest Edwin Harper (1907-2003) (7GR) was born in Jenks, Oklahoma. His father, a farmer, moved the family around Kansas and OK a number of times before pulling up stakes and relocating to Vancouver, WA after WWI. He worked as a brakeman on the RR. Ernest was probably finishing H.S. when he contacted Arthur--he omitted the year on his QSL card, but added a friendly, "Merry Xmas." After graduating from the University of Washington he worked as an announcer/engineer at a Seattle radio station. He married M. Tracy (last name unknown) c.a. 1929, but it only lasted a couple of years. He moved to Chicago c.a. 1935 where he went to work for RCA Communication, Inc. and remarried, Helen L. (Radalk). At RCA in 1944 he earned a patent (#2,352,541) for inventing a system of synchronizing signals in a time division multiplex telegraph system. He returned to Bellingham, WA c.a. 1949 and became the Chief Engineer at KVOS-TV when it began operation. He introduced the first cable TV service in the city in early 1950's, and worked as a TV and radio consultant in the 60's. He had one son, Ernest Terry, and stayed in Bellingham until his death. See him at FAG #139909110. Terry Harper became a ham too and was a charter member of the Bellingham H.S. Amateur Radio Club when it formed in 1955 (call sign W7WNS). He graduated in 1956 and went on to earn a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1961 and his Master's in 1964.
Gilbert H. Greenlaw (1VD) (1904-1992) was the son of a Quincy, MA plumbing and heating supply storeowner. He had a twin brother Seth A. They graduated from H.S. in 1923 and sold automobile parts and accessories together for many years before entering the retail liquor business. Gilbert got his ham license c.a. 1924 and stayed active in the hobby until at least 1934 (at W1CEZ). Seth died in 1975; Gilbert in 1992, leaving his widow, Viola (Nordstrom) whom he married in 1936. They had no children. See him at Find a Grave memorial # 111732049.
This completes our series of bios taken from the 44 QSL cards preserved by Michael Collins.
Don't miss our program about the history of radio technology today, its a good one! 1:30-3:00. ... See MoreSee Less
2 months ago ·
The Story in the Cards part IX. Three more mini-bios taken from the QSL (post)cards sent to Arthur Collins and preserved by his son, Michael.
Emil Fred Karklin (1BUO/W6IBY) (1906-1967) lived in Roslindale, MA, a suburb of Boston. His father was a machinist in the Navy shipyard who had immigrated to the US from Latvia in 1895. Emil DX'd Arthur Apr. 30, 1925. It was the first time he had reached anyone in Iowa! He was a little slow in mailing his QSL card and had already received Arthur's. . . he responded with a friendly "congratulations on ur good looking crd." Art was using a couple of different QSL cards in 1925, one conventional, hardly worth the exclamation (see attached), and the other, well illustrated (also attached). Emil probably received the latter. The source of the artwork is unknown. Karklin moved to Oakland, CA in the early 1930's and then Redwood City, south of SF. He married Meta Hermine (Rolof) about this same time. He worked as a chemical engineer in a rubber & asbestos plant there in 1940. He stayed in CA and remained a ham radio enthusiast going by "Fred" with the call sign W6IBY through at least 1946. The Karklins had two children, a daughter, Carol (Adams) who died in 2016, and a son David who is a 1966 graduate of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken NJ. He became the QA Director at E-Systems and is a long-time ham himself (W2TA). See Fred at Find a Grave memorial # 17594468.
Rodney L. Dinsmore (1907-1979) (1SO) was the son of a South Portland, ME bookkeeper. He obtained his radio license at age 14 and remained a ham until the Great Depression, but a radioman all his life. Dinsmore joined the Mackay Radio Co. (pronounced MACK-ee) after high school and worked as a marine radio engineer at stations in NY, Louisiana, FL and Maine, one of the thousands of hams who helped operate and maintain the marine radio-telegraph system that blanketed the US coasts serving and protecting sea traffic in the pre-satellite communication era. MACK-ee Radio was founded in 1925 by Clarence H. Mackay, President of the Postal Telegraph Co. to offer seamless international communication using the existing Postal Telegraph (wire) system, undersea cables and powerful seaside radio transmitters to reach Hawaii, South America and ships at sea. Dinsmore went where he was needed, including Southampton, NY from where WSL, the Mackey transmitter on Long Island, was remotely operated. It was the chief communication link between NYC and ships sailing the North Atlantic from 1929-1956. Son, Ken, was born in Jupiter, FL in 1934 while Rod worked at WMR handling Gulf Coast traffic for Mackay. He also worked at WNU in Maine, and WAG in New Orleans (for the Tropical Radio Telegraph Co.). He married Evelyn (Mossman) in Aug. 1931. Ken was their only child. See Dinsmore at Find a Grave memorial #158850990.
Vernon Wesley Kalbfleisch (1906-1974) (W7FB) grew up in Tekoa, in eastern WA. His father was a bank cashier who came to the US with this family from Ontario, Canada when he was just six years-old. Vern DX'd Arthur July 19, 1925. Their contact came in the midst of a major crisis on the famous MacMillan Arctic Expedition. The Navy's vessel, the Peary was anchored in Godhavn harbor, Greenland, out of coal and unable to refuel because the town was quarantined owing to a whooping cough epidemic. The radio room hummed with activity as Commander MacDonald sought permission from Danish officials to sail to a nearby mine and load-up there. The delay cost them eight critical days. Art's role assisting to resolve the crisis is still TBD. Vern married in 1929 (Lolita Mae Hall) and they moved to Lewiston, ID in 1932 where he worked as a clerk/cashier for the Camas Valley Railroad until his retirement in 1972. He stayed a ham radio enthusiast at least until WWII, and was a charter member of the Lewiston-Clarkston Amateur Radio Club when it organized in 1939. Their son, Kay C., joined the Marine Corps Reserves and served in Korea and Vietnam between stints teaching and coaching in Lewiston for 23 years. He retired as a major. See Vernon at Find a Grave memorial # 116942216. ... See MoreSee Less
3 months ago ·
The Story in the Cards part VIII. Five more mini-bios taken from the QSL (post)cards sent to Arthur Collins and preserved by his son, Michael.
Ralph O. Lyons (1906-1930) (7ALD) was attending Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR, when he DX'd Arthur in July, 1924. He was a member of the Alpha Zeta fraternity. After leaving school he married Pauline (Diamond) and went to work for the Gresham, OR telephone company as a trouble-shooter. Lyons died an accident in 1930 when he came in contact with a high-voltage power line. He left no children. See him at Find a Grave memorial # 72581065.
Elmer R. Gabel (1903-1940) (3CHC) was a ham radio enthusiast living in Kennett Square, PA. He later worked as a radio engineer in Cleveland and he met his future wife there. She died of pulmonary TB in 1935; they didn't have any children. Gabel succumbed to the same disease five years later. See him at Find a Grave memorial # 51016060.
Christopher C. Curley (1891-1944) (1QM) of Lynn, MA served as a corporal in WWI 1917-1918 9th Co., 3rd Battalion, and in Co. D, 307th Supply Train, 82nd Div. He was probably trained by the Army as a radio operator. After the Armistice, he worked as an electrician for the Lynn Fire Department and a city sprinkler alarm company. He was killed in a drunken fight over a woman by her jilted former lover. His assailant was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 10-15 years in prison. See Curley at Find a Grave memorial # 202034054.
Clarence Babcock Goodwin (1896-1948) (1UW) was the son of William D. Goodwin the Vice-principal of Pittsfield (Mass.) H.S.. After college he went to work as a designer at the Balfour Jewelry Co., in Attleboro, MA the country's largest maker of high school and college class rings and fraternity pins, founded in 1913. He met his future wife there, Loretta Catherine (Cronan), a clerk working in the packing dept., and they married in 1933. Ham radio thrived in the area, but there are no signs Goodwin played an active role in the clubs or stayed with the hobby after 1929. He died just before Christmas, 1948 in an accidental fall down the stairs to his apartment, returning home after some Xmas shopping. He left no children. See him at Find a Grave memorial # 201654788.
Jesse Norcross Sargent, Jr. (1AXY) (1907-1970) of Somerville, MA was a Junior in H.S. when he DX'd Arthur on March 7, 1925. Like Arther, he had been a licensed ham since age 14, and radio would be a life-long passion. Sargent was one of the more elusive hams to track down among Arthur's QSL card-writers, and perhaps that comes when you get too much unwanted press in your youth. Jess's parents were going through an ugly separation, which burst out in public in Oct. 1925 when his father, an early machinist and truck driver for New England Telephone & Telegraph Company, and now a chauffeur for its President, filed a $25,000 lawsuit charging Michael J. Tyrrell with alienation of affections and enticing his wife (Jesse's nother) Leonora (Potter) away from their home and family. Tyrrell, a truck driver for the Gulf Refining Co., had started rooming in the Sargent house c.a. 1921. Upon learning of the affair, Sargent threw Tyrrell out, but Nora continued seeing him, and left the home permanently in July, 1924. The trial was traumatic, with Jesse, Jr. testifying for his mother, and his older sister, Constance, supporting their father. Nora was given to hysterical in-court fits and fainting spells, which ultimately prevented her from testifying. Sargent won a $12,000 judgement and a divorce in Nov. 1926. Nora was given custody of Jesse Jr.; Constance stayed with Jesse, Sr., who remarried Esther (Nesbit) and began a new family. He remained a chauffeur, in the same job, until his death in 1959, when he was acclaimed a "pioneer" of the New England Tel & Tel.Co.. Jesse, Jr. married in 1929-- Grace (last name unknown). He worked as a salesman in an office equipment store. Later he worked for New England Service Sales Company, a wholesale industrial supplier, with offices in Springfield, MA, NYC, SF and Chicago. He operated W8EEM in Dayton, OH c.a. 1932; W2MRD in Great Neck, Long Island, NY c.a. 1940; W1HVL in Cape Elizabeth and Portland, ME 1947-1952; W9MTE in Island Lake, IL c.a. 1958-1960. In 1955 Sargent was recognized by the Addressograph-Multigraph Corporatation as one the nation's top office equipment salesmen and elected to the A-M Hundred Club, an honor reserved for the company's highest achievers. He died in Atlantic Beach, FL in Jan. 1970, leaving one son, Dick. ... See MoreSee Less
3 months ago ·