NCCC Memorial Comments About Jack

NCCC Jack Leddy, N6EM SK  [SK means "Silent Key" in ham radio slang = in Morse code is "... _._" Jack will be indicated in commentators as "N6EM SK" and that call will not be heard again on the air for two years.  Later the N6EM call can be retained in the family if applied for within the next two years and can be obtained by a closely related family member -  Tom Nelson]

Jack was a very active member of the Northern California Contest Club:  a radio ham group.  Here are some comments from members passed on to me by Tom Nelson.

From Charles K. Epps  I am saddened to report the passing of long time NCCC member Jack Leddy, N6EM [Jack's ham radio call letters].  First licensed in 1935, Jack delighted at the eyebrows he raised when he gave ?35? as his check in Sweepstakes.  Operating from his small city lot in San Mateo, jack was always in there slugging it out to help NCCC chase the SS Club gavel.

As a child, Jack personally met both Guglielmo Marconi and Albert Einstein.  Not many of us can claim something like that.

Jack's health had been failing for quite some time.  He went off the air a few years ago when he and his XYL sold their home and moved into a senior care facility in San Jose.

Jack will be sorely missed.  We have lost one of the good ones.

73 de Rusty, W6OAT

Kurt Andress  kurt@k7nv.com

What a Terrific Guy!

I got to stop by Jack's place to do a few things for him, while on one of my Bay Area tower work trips a few years ago, before he moved.  It was just a pleasure to be with that man!
He told me stories about working my Dad (W6KUT), and duking it out with Dad for some DX in the old days, and some of the first years of the West Coast DX Convention when they all got to meet eacy other in person for the first time...great stuff  ;-)

He sure loved the avocation we all share, and the people in it!

Kudos, and Thanks Jack!

73, Kurt ; - (


Rob k6rb@baymoon.com

Jack was a gentleman and a good operator.  I can still hear him saying "easy money."  Save us a position at that big contest station in the sky, OM.

Rob  K6RB

Jim Brown k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com

Yes indeed.  Jack was one of those who gave me the warmest of welcomes when I arrived here six years ago.  He very generously offered me his QTH for Sweepstakes, and I had a lot of fun there.  jack was also quite intelligent and well read.  I got the feeling he was a first class engineer and businessman as well.  He enjoyed walking, and I had hoped to join him on some of those occasions, but it was soon after that his health took a dive, and we never got the opportunity.....

David Aslin daslin@bayarea.net

Very Sorry to hear that Rusty.  As you say, one of the good ones.  I'll never forget his kindness and generosity and the fun of contesting with him at his San Mateo QTH.  Go gently Jack OM.  You're sorely missed.
73
Dave  WJ60 GeWGn

[Tom Nelson reports that Dave was one of Jack's good friends in the NCCC.  He is in England now and sent this from the U.K.]

Dean Wood cqden6de@gmail.com

I hae happy memories of Jack and missed his presence at NCCC meetings the last several years.

73...

Dean - N6DE

Kit  w6iso@sbcglobal.net

I'm going to miss the rascal.  We enjoyed many contests together and trips to the "cabin."

73 de Kit W6ISO

Bill Haddon haddon.bill@gmail.com

Jack and his lovely artist wife visited my home in Corte Madera at the Sept. 2004 NCCC meeting that Barbara and I hosted [as far as I know the only NCCC meeting held at a member's home in this century]

John Miller webaron@gmail.com

I have good memories as well.  His quick wit was appreciated.  He sent this to the reflector in 2009

A Dentist who practiced in Billings
Inserted electronic fillings
His patient's recourse
Was copying Morse
Or submitting to extensive drillings

Thanks for the smiles, Jack.

73
John, K6MM

T. L. Nelson  tlneelson@dcn.davis.ca.us

Yes indeed Jack is a great loss to electronics, ham radio in general, contesting in particular, NCCC and to his many friends and family.

I first knew Jack in high school when we both were 16 years old and living in Bakersfield.  In 1938, he and I, along with several high school friends, organized a high school radio club and obtained the club call N6EM.  His call was W6PLJ but when he found N6EM was available through the vanity program, he asked for and obtained it in memory of his old high school club call.

We both went to U.C. Berkeley but in the later part of his college years during WWII, he mysteriously disappeared - later found to have been commissioned an officer in the Navy and sent to do highly classified work both in the U.S. and England on behalf of the war effort.  Only very recently has the work he was doing been declassified and he has been able to talk about it as well as belatedly receiving public recognition for his war efforts from the Navy.

In more recent years it has been a joy to have Jack come up to my farm where we participated on several occasions in giving out Sutter County during CQO,  Dave Astin joined in with us on one of those occasions.

RIP  -  Tom Nelson, - W6EO

I will add to this with more accounts later.

Tom Leddy

Sad News About Jack Leddy

John Barnes (Jack) Leddy passed away in his apartment in San Jose, California on Friday, January 20, only two days before his 90th birthday.  He is survived by his wife, Jane, his brother Don, his four children Tom, Bill, Robin and John, and his four grandchildren, Anna, Andrew, Giancarlo and Harrison. Members of his extended family and his many friends have been contacting us to express their condolences.  I will post a longer obituary on this site later.  Please feel free to share stories and thoughts about Jack in the comments section of this posting, or send to me at tle403@aol.com   Although no formal funeral is planned, there will be a memorial event sometime in February.  .

Site of Perkins and Leddy Men's Wearables

In 2003 a Karla Everett listed some businesses advertising in the 1913 Pasadena High School yearbook. (This letter is currently posted at Ancestry.com) One of these businesses was Perkins and Leddy Mens Wearables at 17 East Colorado Street, Pasadena. Karen and I went to where 17 East Colorado Street would be and found this building.  No address of 17 was listed on the building. 

734 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena

734 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena

My wife, Karen Haas, and I had a nice adventure when we were in the L.A. area last week.  I went to the research library in the Pasadena historical museum and discovered the Directory of Pasadena from 1912 that at that time John T., Harold, Helen, and May were all living at 734 N. Raymond Ave.  So we drove over to that site and took a picture of the house.  Then it turned out that the current owners were there and were happy to show us the renovations they had done.  Some of the rooms looked just as they would have looked in 1912. Here is an example of the interior.

I also found out that they rented this place, which was constructed in 1905.  It is described in one document "A one-and-one-half-story Classic Box, the design of this residence was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement as seen in the arroyo stone piers, foundation, chimney, and walls flanking the front concrete steps."  It had been turned into a duplex at one point, but now again is a single-family house.  The owners had a copy of a census sheet from 1910 which showed living there John T and wife Mary (or is it Margaret?), and their four children: Mari, Helen, Jane, Harold and Alma.  Interestingly, John T.'s wife is shown as having a father from England and a mother from Louisiana.  Mari (26) was a "typewriter," Helen (21) a book-keeper in a laundry, and Jane (20) a book-keeper in publishing.  Harold (18) and Alma (17) were not employed.  Joseph E. Leddy (John T.s brother who co-owned Perkins and Leddy menswear) lived down the street at 501 N. Raymond (there is no longer a residence there.)

Trip on the S.S. Astoria by James B. Eddie Family (without James)

S.S. Astoria

Hamish Brown Eddie traveled between New York and Glasgow on the S.S. Astoria in April 1902 at the age of eight with his mother Margaret, and his sisters Margaret, Iona, and Marie (who was only two).  By 1910 he was living in Pasadena.  In 1917 he is listed in his draft registration as living at 474 E. 49th St, Los Angeles.  In 1920 he was living in Los Angeles, as head of household, with Harold (my grandfather) Margaret (my grandmother), my great-aunt Iona and her husband Irving Bowen, and my great-aunt Marie.  They were all in their twenties.

 

James B. Eddie family portrait

My cousin Claire writes "According to Uncle Don [Leddy, son of Harold and Margaret], this is the "Eddie Family:  Auntie I [Iona] and Grandpa Eddie [James B.] in the back, Aunt Marie, Uncle Hamish and 'my mother' (our grandmother [Margaret]) in front."  Thanks Claire!


More on James Eddie latter.

Jack's short encounter with Lee De Forest

Lee De Forest

Jack wrote in at a letter to nccc@contesting.com on Dec. 30, 2006  "I had a summer job as 'Office Boy' in a patent attorney's (Albert G. Morris) in Pasadena in 1934.  It was my first real job and I was paid $1 a day to run errands.  One day Lee De Forest came over from Hollywood to review his lawsuits with Mr. Morris and to file for some new patents.  I was sent over to the Pasadena City Hall to get some copies made of the size "C" drawings.  In those days before copying machines the only way one could get copies made was to wait a long time in an ammoniated atmosphere while blueprint copies were made of the drawings. Then I ran back to the office on the 10th floor of this building and delivered the original back to De Forest.  De Forest was spending a large part of his income on lawsuits against RCA and Hazeltine over his patents and also had legal problems with his 3 ex-wives.  At that time he was also wasting his talents on medical inventions including ultra-violet diathermy machines that only resulted in a good tan but no income.  He struck me as another frustrated inventor up against the best lawyers in the country that were hired by Sarnoff at RCA.  Later in life I also lost out to Sarnoff and his big money when he put his son in as an RCA distributor in the Central Valley when the TV boom took place.  But in 1934 I was making some money.  Some former executives were selling apples on the street just in order to eat.  The Great Depression was really tough and I am afraid that a good many of you have never been through such an experience.  It can happen again!  After buying a hamburger and a milkshake for 25 cents and paying 20 cents for a round trip to my home I still had 55 cents profit every day with no taxes to pay in those days and could spend the money on radio parts, including triode tubes."