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K6DUE

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Additional Information (as of 27-NOV-2003)

• Personal homepage:  http://www.angelfire.com/fl/engservice/K6DUE.html 
• Obit:  http://www.geocities.com/broadcastpioneers/royneal.html
• An ARRL Memorial with pictures:  http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/08/18/101/?nc=1
• ARRL Obit:
  
  ==>ROY NEAL, K6DUE, SK
  
  Retired NBC News space correspondent, producer and executive Roy Neal,
  K6DUE, died August 15 in High Point, North Carolina. He was 82. Neal
  underwent major heart surgery August 12.
  
  Recognized as a leading news expert in spaceflight and science, Neal--born
  Roy N. Hinkel--covered all of the Mercury missions for NBC and later
  reported the Gemini and Apollo missions and the early space shuttle
  flights. His space news experience led him to become involved with the
  Space Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX)--now the Amateur Radio on the
  International Space Station (ARISS) program. ARISS, a joint project of
  ARRL, AMSAT and NASA, put Amateur Radio aboard space shuttles and
  developed the first permanent ham station in space aboard the ISS. Neal
  chaired the SAREX/ARISS Working Group and moderated ARISS international
  team gatherings and, quite often, school group contact teleconferences.
  Earlier this year, he was inducted into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame
  for his role in persuading NASA officials to allow Amateur Radio operation
  from space in the 1980s.
  
  Neal also was a regular visitor and sometime presenter at Hamvention. He
  hosted the 1987 ARRL video production, New World Of Amateur Radio, an
  overview of ham radio in space.
  
  A Pennsylvania native, Neal's broadcasting career began at WIBG radio in
  Philadelphia. He served as a combat infantry officer during World War II
  and later became a program manager for the Armed Forces Radio Network in
  Europe. After the war, he was a television pioneer at WPTZ-TV in
  Philadelphia. He subsequently set up NBC's West Coast news bureau.
  
  An ARRL member and active amateur operator throughout his adult life, Neal
  enjoyed DXing, HF and VHF. Survivors include his wife Pat and sons David
  and Mark. Arrangements are pending

• NBC REPORTER ROY NEAL DIES ; NEAL, WHO MOVED TO HIGH POINT AFTER HE
    RETIRED, COVERED THE SPACE PROGRAM FOR THE NETWORK.
    ELLICA CHURCH Staff Writer
    676 words
    17 August 2003
    Greensboro News & Record
    Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All  rights reserved.
  
    HIGH POINT
  
    Each time Roy Neal finished a phone conversation with his son David, he
    signed off the same way.
  
    "Love you madly," Roy Neal would say before hanging up.
  
    That father-son tradition is something that David Neal will always
    remember.
  
    "That's more important than any other memories or people I met through
    him," he said. "Life with my dad was something extremely special. I'm
    blessed to have had him as my dad."
  
    Family and friends remember Roy Neal, a retired NBC News correspondent
    who died Friday, for his keen sense of curiosity and kindness.
  
    Neal retired from NBC in 1986 after decades spent covering NASA,
    including the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs. He met his wife,
    Pat, while she was a secretary for NASA and moved to her childhood home
    of High Point from Los Angeles after he retired.
  
    Neal started his career at NBC working on a news program that was the
    precursor to "Today." In 1952, he went to Los Angeles to open the
    station's West Coast bureau but continued to travel widely covering the
    space program.
  
    During those years, he became friends with many of the astronauts who
    pioneered the space program - people like John Glenn, Alan Shepard Jr.
    and Gene Cernan, whom David Neal and his brother, Mark, referred to as
    "Uncle Gene."
  
    Having astronauts or movie stars over for dinner was a common occurance,
    said David Neal, executive vice president of NBC Olympics coverage. But
    despite the renown of those dinner guests, the son recalls his father
    being able to relate to people on a human level.
  
    Roy Neal drew great enjoyment from communicating with people. Like any
    journalist, David Neal said, his father had a passion for crafting
    stories that captivated an audience.
  
    "He was an absolute sponge," David Neal said. "When he would go to events
    as a newsman, he would soak up the people, events and dynamic that made
    something what it was. He lived in those moments and had an acute
    appreciation for the moments of history he experienced."
  
    Roy Neal's longtime friend, retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Miller, former head
    of the Marine Corps aviation division, first met Neal in 1962 when he was
    covering the space program. Miller said Neal's own zeal for learning
    about the world added a new dimension to his work.
  
    "He had this driving energy with why and how did things work," Miller
    said. "It was just a spirit that was inquisitive. He could relate
    technical details such that other people could understand it."
  
    Miller and Neal also shared another common interest - amateur radios -
    and the two talked several times a week throughout the years.
  
    Neal grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and built his first ham radio as
    a teen to learn more about cities across the country by talking to people
    who lived there. Neal became a licensed ham radio operator in 1935 and
    was a High Point Amateur Radio Club member.
  
    In the early 1980s, Neal encouraged NASA to install ham radios on space
    shuttles, allowing astronauts talk to their families and school children
    about the experience of being in space. Neal served as chairman of that
    program, the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment.
  
    Despite spending time using more modern forms of technology to
    communicate with family, Neal remained an avid ham radio operator
    chatting with a network of people worldwide.
  
    "He had a lifetime fascination with the world," David Neal said. "He had
    such a natural curiosity about people. He wanted to know what they were
    about and that created many lasting friendships."
  
    Roy Neal is survived by his wife, Pat; two sons, Mark and David; and two
    grandchildren.
  
    Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Wesley Memorial
    United Methodist Church. Visitation will follow the service.
  
    < END >