President’s Perspective - 2001/04

April 2001 5
ONE THING I’ll tell you about the job of
being AMA president—or being the
president of virtually any association—is
that you have to like people.
Oh sure, there will be those times
when you feel as if you want to box
someone’s ears. And there will be a few
people who get under your skin so much
that you just want to scream, but you had
better be able to get over it, as this is a
“people” kind of job.
In dealing with people, you find that
some of those with whom you have the
most intense disagreements are the ones
for whom you ultimately develop the
greatest respect.
One such colleague was Ed
McCollough, with whom I argued during
most of his long career on the Executive
Council. Please understand that Ed and I
could disagree about the direction from
which the sun would rise!
Last year, when the vast majority of
the world accepted the year 2000 as the
start of the millennium, Ed was among
the first to argue that 2001 would be the
start of the millennium.
In the course of normal conversation,
each time I would refer to 2000 as the
millennium, he would try to correct me. I
will admit that even I thought he was
technically right, I preferred to go along
with the majority of the world’s
population. And Ed—well, Ed was Ed.
I hate to admit it, but right now I hope
Ed was right in the case of the last
argument we had (Shh! Don’t tell him I
said that!); that would allow me to
consider 2000 the end of a millennium and
hope for a fresh start in 2001.
The year 2000 was going reasonably well
until October when, during a festive dinner
at the RCHTA (Radio Control Hobby
Trade Association) show with the AMA
crew, Programs Director Jay Mealy’s cell
phone rang.
It was longtime AMA employee Greg
Chartrand with the terrible news that
Bob Vojslavek had died from
complications following hip-replacement
surgery.
This was a blow to all of us. Bob had
been a friend, an AMA employee, and a
staunch supporter of AMA for many
years. In addition, Bob’s wife Mary Lou
is the Operations/Administrative Director
at AMA, and the office staff took his
passing pretty hard.
I attended the memorial gathering at
the Vojslavek home near AMA
Headquarters in Muncie. It was obvious
that a couple members of the staff,
Technical Director Steve Kaluf and Greg
Chartrand, were instrumental in
organizing the tribute and were helping
Mary Lou through this tough time.
It was a perfect example of how closeknit
our people are.
It was only about a month later when we
learned that Steve Kaluf’s father had
become ill, and unfortunately he failed fairly
rapidly. Steve was close to his father, who
was an aeromodeler and had introduced
Steve to this great sport.
Steve took some time to attend to his
father’s affairs, and returned to
Headquarters a couple of weeks before
Christmas.
I hadn’t talked to Steve until he called
early in the morning approximately a week
before Christmas. I immediately expressed
my condolences for his father, but Steve
said that wasn’t the end; he was calling to
let me know that Greg Chartrand had died
while shoveling snow at his mother’s
house in Chicago.
At first I couldn’t believe him. It
couldn’t be—Greg was a young guy, only
45, but Steve assured me it was. Although
the first suspicion was a heart attack, it
was later learned that an aneurysm had
caused his death.
Greg was responsible for the
Headquarters site maintenance. Anyone
who has been to the AMA facility in
Muncie can appreciate his contributions.
A very dedicated employee, Greg
could be counted on in any situation of
need. I’ve seen him show up at all hours
of the day or night to handle any
maintenance emergency.
Although being a good employee is one
thing, he was also a good friend to many.
While standing with Greg’s wife and
Executive Director Joyce Hager at the
calling hours, his wife commented that the
funeral parlor had done such a good job
because Greg was an organ donor.
Somehow that was comforting, as it so
fit Greg. He gave of himself to the end,
and then gave some more. That was Greg.
Godspeed, my friend.
I’m willing to consider 2001 the start of
the millennium—the end of the last one was
not so good—but don’t tell Ed! I’ll never
hear the end of it!
Actually, the millennium hasn’t started
out all that well. I just learned that Cliff
Wierick, past president of AMA,
suffered a serious stroke which resulted
in some paralysis.
Hopefully our prayers will help him
recover from this setback. MA
Dave Brown
AMA president
[email protected]
It was a perfect
example of
how close-knit
our people are.
President’s Perspective
Dave Brown AMA president