Steve Kaluf

I don’T very often include a letter from
a member in my columns (in fact only once
before that I remember); however, I
recently received a letter from member Bob
Walker that asked me to address an all too
common problem. Here is Bob’s letter:

The end of 2000 was a tough time for
me, as I lost my father December 2 after a
long battle with cancer.
Dad was a career Army officer who
normally accomplished more by 7 a.m.
than most people did all day long.
His modeling skills were respected by
all. Building models for Bill Winter and
many others, he often gave models away to
those showing an interest in them, as his joy
in modeling was building the models. He
loved to see the models fly, but did not mind
if someone else was doing the flying.
Dad affected the lives of most everyone
he came in contact with—always for the
better, even though they may not have
realized it immediately.
Last year, dad’s local flying club (Florida
Float Flyers) held a fly-in to showcase
models he built; it appeared that most
everyone in the club owned a model built by
him. A picture taken at the event shows dad
with about 15 models in front of him.
To say that I will miss him would be
the understatement of a lifetime. However,
aeromodeling will miss him too; another
real modeler has left us.
I also lost two good friends late in
2000; both have been mentioned
previously in Model Aviation.
Bob Vojslavek was an AMA employee for a
number of years. His last position at AMA was
operations director. In more recent years, Bob
was a very active volunteer and was
instrumental in making the AMA Grand Event
what it is today. The Radio Control car raceway
at AMA has been named in honor of Bob.
Greg Chartrand served as maintenance
director for AMA for a number of years,
and was employed by AMA as the building
supervisor at the time of his death. He
passed away while clearing snow at his
mother’s house just before Christmas.
Greg helped with the move from Reston
VA to Muncie, making everyone’s life much
easier. He and I worked together to ensure
that the AMA site was as good as it could be
for our membership. Greg took a personal
interest in this; the site was and is a showcase.
Many people will miss Bob and Greg; I
will miss them because they were good
friends and good people to be around.