| |
The story of our A.R.R.L. beginnings has been often told: how Mr. Maxim foresaw the need for
national unity in amateur matters, sought carefully for a basis for organizing, found it in the idea of relaying, and then, with the
collaboration of that brilliant Hartford youth, Clarence D.Tuska, launched our League, first as a committee within the old Radio Club of
Hartford, then on its own in 1914; and now, the following year, together with Tuska, he started our magazine, QST. From that day to
this, he has been our mentor, our inspiration. The character of Mr. Maxim can be summed up in a few crisp words: he stood for the
very highest principles in everything. He was universally respected and no one would think of letting down so grand a chief. With one
exception he presided over every meeting of the A.R.R.L. Board of Directors ever held and over 139 meetings of the Executive
Committee held under the present constitution. It was always a marvel to us how a man of so many diverse activities could find the
time for them all; yet in the affairs of our League he was always ready, willing and eager, and he directed our councils with the wisdom
of long experience in the affairs of men.
This is an appropriate time and place for us to disclose a little appreciated facet of the Maxim
personality. We spoke above of Mr. Maxim as an author. We tell now a sad secret, one zelaously preserved over many a year:
H.P.M. was T.O.M. Yes, fellows, the Old Chief himself was The Old Man, that most trenchant observer of amateur practices!
It will show our readers, as nothing else could, the The Chief was as keen an amateur as ever lived, that he surely knew his stuff!
Surrounded by affairs and living in an atmosphere that required most of the time a considerable measure of dignity, obliged most of the
time to express himself in formal language, we have known with what delight the boss had refuge to a pen-name for an opportunity to
cut loose and swing cleanly from the shoulder with the language of another world, coupled with good horse-sense talk about our
operating foibles. T.O.M. was conceived in the knowledge that a homely talk in an amusing vein, employing ridicule as a weapon,
would be much more effective in opening the eyes of amateurs about their weaknesses than columns of editorial preachments. His
many yarns have been the most talked-of feature in QST. The benign despot who was T.O.M. has ruled our hearts for many years
May he ever do so in memory, while his mysterious instrument, the Wouff-Hong, remains close to hand, ready if needed to preserve the
traditions he established. |
|
Page 5