John Ninian McCutcheon M0JMC
John Ninian McCutcheon 3/3/1939 - 13/12/2012 who passed away at home with his family by his side.
OUR MEMORIES OF JOHN, M0JMC
How can we describe John Mac?
Well, a rather shy gentleman, eager to help and not expecting to be patted on the back - which he was of course, many times.
He volunteered for the job of club secretary, not by force, more like, no-one else wanted to do the job!
He got stuck into it pretty quickly and soon found us things to do on club nights, like getting the radio equipment out and getting some activity “on the air”. Finding speakers from other clubs and societies to come and give us talks.
Also answering the mail enquiring about this and that at our club. (Thanks to John, we now have a thriving attending membership).
This all started by encouraging a lot of the members to start the new “Foundation” and “Intermediate” amateur radio examination courses.
Being an ex teacher (he was retired Head of Science at Hitchin Girls Grammar School), he had all the knowledge needed to get us running the courses. Some doing Morse assessments, radio operating procedure, and technical projects students had to make for the intermediate course and then making sure he could arrange for two people to do the presentation course which would, hopefully and did, instil the technical knowledge needed to pass the exams.
John did most of the donkey work which entailed all the paperwork the RSGB, our National Society, could pile upon him. This also included him filling all the forms, some in triplicate, also collecting the course monies and generally making sure everything ran smoothly.
Asking fellow radio amateurs from the club what they thought most of John the answer was usually "his ability to encourage and pacify the terrified about to take an exam!"
He is going to be a hard act to follow and it is the duty of the committee to find a replacement.
Thank you John, our “Silent Key”. RIP