wb0zvq-Bill

My father, William E. (Bill) Pennington passed away at his home in Ava, MO, following a 8 month battle with cancer, on March 10, 2006.

Some of you out there may have encountered my Dad while traveling in the Branson, MO area (Hollister, MO). He was active in the local Ham club & repeater association. Serving many years, collectively, as an officer in both.

He was the first voice many heard when entering the area & helped countless Hams with directions, emergency phone calls, suggestions, etc. over the years. ANY Ham entering the area could count on being welcomed by him, if he was within hearing of the repeater or handheld (which he invariably was) & assisted if needed. He helped coordinated plans & maintained equipment for the annual club field day exercises & served many years as a certified weather spotter.

If he saw a stranded motorist, he would stop to ask if they needed a phone call made (in the days before cell phones of course) for assistance. And would make contact via Ham radio with another area Ham to ensure the call was made. It was not unheard of for him to pull over & try to assist them himself, depending on the situation.

He coordinated with the Red Cross to provide communications for the vans delivering drinks & food to the road blocks & checkpoints county-wide, during a manhunt for the shooter of a State Trooper not far from our home. He probably put in more hours than any other riding those vans & coordinating Ham assistance with all emergency services during that time. All while ensuring the safety of our family & home.

In addition, he maintained & operated a local repeater at our home, until his diagnosis & subsequent move to Ava, MO with our Mother in 2005, when he formally relinquished the frequency. It was a sad day when myself & my siblings went to the old homeplace to "drop" the 100 ft tower that appeared in so many photos of our childhood home for so many years. Dad sadly was unable to make the trip to observe (supervise) as he wished.

Dad first became a Ham in the early 70s, after becoming disabled at a rather young age. As a way to keep himself busy & meet new friends, he was encouraged to pursue Ham Radio by many. It seemed he had found his calling.

He & my oldest brother passed their exams on the same day & received sequential call signs (wb0zvr-Harold Pennington is my brother). They both elected to keep their original call signs throughout the years, even tho both advanced their privileges greatly, simply because of this.

Over the years, my Mother (kb0gti), my younger brother (ke0sg) & myself (kc0cdk) have become Hams. (There are a total of 7 kids)

There were times when travelling to visit my parents that I would contact him as far away as Lebanon, MO & we would continue talking (switching frequencies at necessary points) until I had travelled within a few miles of the house. It was a part of the 5 hour trip I always looked forward to. More often than not we ended up conversing with other Hams along the way, that knew my father and/or simply had heard our conversations on past trips & enjoyed our fun banter on the air & jumped in to say "hello". It was not unusual for me to call him & have one of those "faceless" Hams come back to tell me he was caught in a conversation on another frequency & that they had already relayed the message that I was looking for him. Sure enough he shortly "appeared".

For any of you that did not "meet" him, he was a true Ham. He took pride in his license & would never allow anything to endanger his privileges or those of others. He was always ready to assist others & truly felt an obligation & a need to be involved in emergency services & local emergency preparedness. He lived the letter & the spirit of what it means to be an Amateur Radio Operator. He was a good neighbor & a good friend.

Dad was an outstanding storyteller. Despite professed "memory losses" over the years, he could be counted on to suddenly pop up with a great story about our grandparents or some other relative from his childhood or from his early adulthood. (amazing how much he could remember when he wasn't trying) Working a project with Dad almost guaranteed at least 1 or 2 great stories along the way. And more often than not he was "telling on himself" as well as others.

And Dad always had projects on the agenda. My first question upon arriving for a visit was "what's the projects on the agenda?". I knew he had a few at least planned for me & that I would enjoy pretty much every minute of them, even if they involved hard work & long hours in the sun or cold. He always made projects & family gatherings interesting for all. We had a lot of laughs together while working projects.

Dad had many other talents & interests as well. He was a "jack of all trades" but unlike "jack" he was a master of many, as well. Carpentry & woodworking, computing, electrician, plumbing & he was a history buff as well, He loved coming up with new ideas for something to build. (this is often where the projects came in)

He was a great problem solver/troubleshooter. Everyone in our extended family tended to look to "Uncle Bill" or "Grandpa" for help with car maintenance, home repairs, etc. (and sometimes that 2am call for help when stranded, he was always there for everyone) If he didn't have what you needed or you couldn't afford to buy it, he'd get out the welder & make it if necessary. AND you learned...in other words, he would do it for you, but he much preferred that you learn to do it yourself, for he knew that one day he would not be around to do it for you anymore.

To that end, the house he & our Mother moved to in Ava, MO would not exist were it not for the skills/wisdom he taught us over the years. Our family (including cousins, in-laws, grandkids, uncles/aunts) turned a metal building into a comfortable 2 bdrm/2bath home for him & Mom....in under 3 mos. ALL the work, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, drywall, septic & finishing work was done by family. We hauled the lumber, sorted it, measured, cut, framed it & set it. We ran the wiring, we dug the trenches, framed in the windows/doors, you name it, we did it. And we did it all without major injury or setback. The electric company needed only to hook on to the meter loop installed by Dad & my brothers. The phone company only had to bury the line & hook us up. The house was designed by Dad & our brother. That house is part of Dad's legacy as much as anything else.

He instilled in all of us a love of the outdoors. He loved to fish, hunt (both firearm & archery) & cave exploring. We continue to enjoy these activities & enjoy fond memories of past trips with Dad.

He is sorely missed by all who knew him.
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This is late in being posted. Truthfully I did not know this forum existed. Glad to have found it. It has taken this long for my mother & I to realize we had not yet notified the FCC of his passing. We will remedy that ASAP.

Thank you for letting me share my Dad with you all.

kc0cdk-Farmington, MO

 

Great tribute to your Dad ---He sounds like a great father and a super ham. You all were very lucky.

 

I'm sorry for your loss, KC...by your description it sounds like a loss for us all.

Your recollections of your dad, though, remind me why I participate in this hobby/lifestyle.

Thanks.

-Kevin