A Small Tribute to a Great Man

June, 2003

A Small Tribute to a Great Man

The end came quietly this week for a man whom I love a great deal. Bill Anderson, my step-father for 25 years and a man I would have proudly called my father had the circumstances been different, will be missed by many. He was the kind of guy who literally mingled with Presidents and Kings, but lived an unassuming life as an everyday Joe.

Amazing that he actually lived to be 88 considering all of the times that he cheated death:

Like the time, when he was a kid, that he found some old dynamite, which he brought back to his room and spelled out his initials (aging dynamite is very volatile).

Or, in the 1930s, when he was a radioman in the Marine Air Core, and his open cockpit airplane went into an unexpected nosedive while his safety belt was undone.

Or, surviving many missions in the South Pacific as a World War II naval pilot.

Or, being one of the few people in 1970s to land in Medellin, Columbia at night - the airport had no landing lights and was closed for the evening (his plane was searched for contraband and was briefly impounded for that incident).

Or, crashing his motorcycle when he was in his late 70s, breaking a collar bone and walking a half-mile to get help.

So, the adventurous life of this calmly confident, but never arrogant, man may not seem to have much to do with interactive television or VOD, but the reality is he had a great impact on my career choice, my life and the lives of many others. As a youth, I aspired to be a successful attorney like him, but, instead, I moved into the field of electronics, the career he once told me he wished he had pursued.

One of his many loves was Ham Radio. He was an early Ham Radio [WG6N] operator dating back to the early 1930s. He rekindled his interest in Ham Radio during retirement, being active in the local Ham Club, hosting a repeater on his water tower and spreading the message of Ham Radio to the next generation of junior high and high school students.

One of the many things he taught me was that even if you are the smartest guy around (which he was definitely one of the overall smarter guys I have ever met), you can still learn more. He was one of only a handful, maybe the only, who passed the Bar exam with only a two year college degree and without graduating from law school. I remember him taking computer programming classes in the 1970s, so he could understand the non-IBM computer system one of his companies had pieced together. He became one of the experts on the system, even though he had a full-time law practice.

And he stayed current with computer technologies, even with all of the changes. Lest I write an article that doesn't mention something about independent telephone companies, he was probably one of Volcano Telephone's oldest customers of DSL. Actually, he just got DSL six months ago, but, at 88, Volcano Telephone probably does not have many DSL customers older than he was. He had even cobbled together a home network, which I am using right now.

I could write a book about him and all of the different adventures he had (like being jailed in Russia in the '70s), but I will save that for another time and place. Besides, he literally already wrote the book, "Flying". He will be missed by many, but he left me and everyone else he touched richer for knowing him and knowing the life he lived. Thanks Bill!

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