National Capital Chapter 70 - Ottawa, Canada

VE3JBW Biography

VE3JBW text

Bill reached his teenage years in occupied Holland during WW II. To avoid recruitment into the Hitler Youth he went to the country to work on a farm and kept out of sight of the SS recruiters. After the war, he completed his secondary education and studied radio to satisfy his urge to go to sea.
Bill obtained his International Second Class Radio Operator Certificate in 1950, and went to sea, working in the Caribbean to South Pacific trade routes, aboard Dutch merchant ships (mostly tankers). Bill qualified for the First Class International Radio Operator Certificate.
Bill emigrated to Canada in 1955. His first job was in a bank, but he applied to Department of Transport for a Radio Operator position, and was hired and assigned to Goose Bay Marine Radio.
In 1957 he qualified for radar training for the DOT Airport and Airways Surveillance Radar, and attended training at Raytheon in Waterloo, Ont. in 1958. H e was assigned to Quebec Airport, and later moved to Montreal and then to Ottawa to work in the Clyde Avenue Labs of DOC.
Bill took night courses and qualified as an Engineering Technologist. He moved to the Communications Research Centre and worked on Space Electronics for 15 years.

Bill was trilingual, being fluent in Dutch, English and French with a knowledge of German and Spanish.

His hobbies included amateur radio and sailing, and he volunteered as a driver for CNIB.

Bill was a member of Chapter 70 prior to his death.

Bill passed away on Jan 12, 2009.