Larry Rain, Ohio SEC SK

Larry Rain, WD8IHP, Ohio Section Emergency Coordinator for almost 4
years, became a silent key Tuesday, September 9th, after suffering a
massive coronary at his home in Mansfield, Ohio. He was 64. He leaves
his wife, Bonnie, N8XLU, and two children.

Before taking Ohio's top emergency coordination job, Larry
served his local club, InterCity ARC in Mansfield for more than two
decades in every office possible. He was county emergency coordinator,
and served for nine years as DEC. During that time Larry also became the
driving force in the formulation of the SKYWARN program throughout
Northern Ohio.

Before retiring after almost three decades of service, Larry
was a professional fire investigator for the City of Mansfield Fire
Department and was part of hundreds of arson investigations for the
Richland County Sheriff's Department.

"He was just the perfect SEC," said Ohio Section Manager, Joe
Phillips, K8QOE, "Because his professional life prepared him well for
understanding the dynamics of volunteer communications groups (ham
radio) with civil emergency groups. He seasoned this knowledge with
great humor and a common touch which earned the respect of all 88 Ohio
county emergency groups he supervised and the governmental agencies,
both state and local, he worked with."

Larry was appointed SEC on January 2, 2000, and immediately
began to fill vacancies in the EC positions throughout Ohio - reducing
the vacancies from 24 to eight in a matter of months. He also
immediately began making Ohio's traffic nets a major part of the state's
emergency response plan. Along with Ohio Single Side Band Net officials,
Larry arranged procedures for DECs to call the OSSBN into emergency
session when necessary - a major improvement in the Ohio Response Plan.


As the SEC in the state which hosts the Dayton Hamvention,
Larry organized the Amateur Radio Emergency Service forum at Hamvention
the past three years - always having personators from ARRL Headquarters
at Newington. SECs throughout the country knew and respected Larry's
work in Ohio.

He was always on the road throughout Ohio in performance of
his duties. Just this past weekend, Larry participated in the Great
Lakes Division Convention in Findlay.

"He handled leadership with great perspective - always taking
his duties seriously but never himself seriously" said SM Phillips,
"Everyone working with Larry was always at ease because that was the law
Larry wanted it."