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.
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