[amsat-bb] SK: Herbert "Pete" Hoover III, W6ZH

[Tom Clark, K3IO]

It is with much sadness that AMSAT notes the passing on Feb.4 of Herbert
"Pete" Hoover III, W6ZH at his home in San Marino, CA. Pete was the
grandson of former President Herbert Hoover. Pete's W6ZH call was
inherited from his father who served as ARRL President; Pete's original
call was W6APW. He was AMSAT Life Member #65.

In the 1970's, Pete and Bill Eitel (W6UF) saw that AMSAT and amateur
satellites were a significant wave of amateur radio's future. In
addition to making substantial contributions, they worked with the ARRL
to form the ARRL Foundation in 1976. Beginning in 1978 Pete served on
the ARRL Long Range Planning Committee.

I remember the hospitality Pete and his wife Meridith showed to Jan King
(W3GET) and me on several occasions when we dropped by his home in San
Marino to discuss AMSAT's future.

Pete was always very active in the American Red Cross. When the Pacsat
concept was being developed, Harold Price (NK6K) and I called on Pete at
the Hoover Foundation offices to discuss the concept of a
store-and-forward messaging satellite to provide medical communications
to a remote area. At Pete's instigation, we began working with VITA
(Volunteers in Technical Assistance) and our Pacsat concept bore fruit
when UoSAT-3 was re-badged as Healthsat-1 (see
http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/healthsat-2.htm).

I last saw Pete at Dayton two years ago. I was in the chow line when I
heard a "Hey Tom" from a nearby table. Pete was spending most of his
time at his retirement home on Maui and he looked very fit and had an
incredible tan! While I was munching on a hamburger we has a great
face-to-face QSO. He told me that he was still on the air, now using an
Elecraft radio.

I'll miss Pete's enthusiasm and friendship. I could always count on his
thoughtful advice.

73 de Tom, K3IO (ex W3IWI


Additional details on Pete can be found on the ARRL web site at
http://www.arrl.org/?artid=9426 and in this week's ARRL newsletter
(http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/?issue=2010-02-11).