Young Ham Elected to Public Office

On June 3^rd, Tim Goodrich, K6TW, was elected to the Torrance, California City Council (pop. 145,438). Originally licensed as KC2DDS at the age of 17, Goodrich, now 34, is an Extra Class ham.

In those 17 years between Technician and Extra class, Goodrich kept busy. At 18, he enlisted in the active duty Air Force, where he served as a communications, navigation, and cryptological technician on the E-3 AWACS. During his time in the military, he deployed to the Middle East on three occasions; in support of the no fly zones over Iraq, Afghanistan, and the pre-war Iraq bombing. Interestingly enough, it was only after Goodrich finished his time in the Air Force that he found out his late grandfather, a WW2 veteran, was a radio mechanic. When asked about this coincidence, Goodrich said, “It’s almost like radio is in my blood. I could have chosen any career field and to end up doing the same thing my grandfather did, what are the chances of that?”

After finishing his three deployments and seeing conditions in third world countries, Goodrich decided not to take life for granted and went back to school, earning his Masters in Public Administration from USC. He also became active in his community, especially as a volunteer with the Torrance Police and Fire Departments, doing communications and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) work, respectively.

And now that Goodrich has been elected to office, he’s not about to slow down. When asked about his goals as an elected official, Goodrich replies, “I’d like to see Torrance improve our public safety by securing a dedicated Emergency Operations Center. When a disaster strikes, we can’t afford to take time setting up our equipment- it needs to be ready to go from the outset.”

In his spare time, Goodrich enjoys operating CW on the HF bands and Summits on the Air (SOTA) operations. For more information, go to www.goodrichforcouncil.com

 

Congrats Tim!

73
Chip W1YW

 

Congrats from a fellow SOTA climber and supporter during the campaign.

Elliott, K6EL