SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX012   
   ARLX012 Former ARRL Washington Coordinator, Archivist Perry Williams, W1UED   
   (SK)   
      
   ZCZC AX12   
   QST de W1AW   
   Special Bulletin 12  ARLX012   
   > From ARRL Headquarters   
   Newington CT  September 29, 2015   
   To all radio amateurs   
      
   SB SPCL ARL ARLX012   
   ARLX012 Former ARRL Washington Coordinator, Archivist Perry Williams, W1UED   
   (SK)   
      
   The League's former Washington Coordinator and veteran ARRL Headquarters staff   
   member Perry Williams, W1UED, of Unionville, Connecticut, died on September   
   25. An ARRL Life Member, Williams, who would have turned 87 in October, spent   
   4 decades on the ARRL staff before retiring in 1994. That same year, he was   
   named as Dayton Hamvention's Amateur of the Year. In 2002 he returned to ARRL   
   Headquarters in a part-time position as the League archivist.   
      
   "If Perry didn't know something about ARRL history, it wasn't worth knowing,"   
   commented ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ. "I worked for Perry when I joined the   
   full-time ARRL staff in 1972 and couldn't have asked for a better mentor."   
      
   A radio amateur since 1951, Williams came to ARRL Headquarters in April 1954   
   as an assistant secretary, which, as Sumner explained, meant that Williams   
   "was expected to be able to answer just about any question about Amateur Radio   
   regulations, both nationally and internationally, and to do whatever the   
   Secretary and General Manager needed done."   
      
   After rising to senior assistant secretary, in 1977 he was named manager of   
   the Membership Services Department. Three years later, he became the ARRL's   
   Washington Area Coordinator, spending a couple of days a week in DC as the   
   face and voice of Amateur Radio on Capitol Hill and at the FCC and working   
   with ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD (then N3AKD), and Washington-area   
   volunteers. Over the years, Williams contributed an extensive list of columns   
   and articles to QST. After returning to Headquarters part-time in 2002,   
   Williams continued as archivist until February 2011.   
      
   "It was my great privilege to work with Perry Williams, W1UED ('usually eats   
   dinner' were his self-chosen phonetics for that call sign), on ARRL advocacy   
   issues. Perry was extremely proud to wave ARRL's banner in the halls of   
   Congress at the FCC and in a good number of other Federal agencies where   
   Amateur Radio had business."   
      
   Imlay said one of Williams's greatest accomplishments included talking   
   Congress out of charging amateurs a license application fee, instead arguing   
   convincingly that in favor of creating a vanity call sign program. "Perry   
   thought - accurately - that amateurs would be willing to pay for services that   
   they got from FCC, but that they would be very unhappy to pay application fees   
   that didn't translate into something that benefited them," Imlay said.   
   "Congress bought Perry's argument, and so we now have vanity call signs and no   
   application fees."   
      
   Imlay said Williams also crafted a plan for the Amateur Service not only to   
   retain large segments of microwave spectrum that a bill in Congress would have   
   surrendered for commercial interests, but to create a primary allocation   
   around 2.4 GHz.   
      
   Prior to joining the ARRL staff, Williams served as a radio operator with the   
   US Air Force Strategic Air Command for 6 years, before and during the Korean   
   Conflict. In his younger years, he was active as a Boy Scout leader, once   
   directed two church choirs, and enjoyed playing the accordion.   
      
   A memorial service will be announced. Survivors include his wife, Martha, and   
   four children.   
      
   NNNN   
   /EX   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   ... Ya can't blame a guy for trying to con.... er, make a buck!   
   ---   
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