Charles (Charlie) Strandberg  KB4AK (SK) 2-4-26 to 10-14-10
Licensed as W4JMI in 1939 at age 13
Had a high end radio shack in the "radio room" which was designed for this purpose when his father built the house.  Had a tower with a beam mounted on the roof of the garage behind the house. By the time we moved in in 1962, radios were gone and the antenna was for tv.  While in high school, got in a "little trouble" running a neighborhood broadcast station EXIMPON (he called himself the Great Pon).
Served  as a naval radio technician on LST 817 in the Pacific theater.
After the war, he followed his ham radio roots and graduated from Duke in electrical engineering.  While at Duke, he worked part-time a night at a Durham radio station as a radio engineer.  Learning about the commercial radio business, he got an idea for product. During his senior year, he successfully invented a device to sharpen expensive radio station record player needles so that they could be reused instead on having to be replaced.  He won the national paper presentation at the 1950 American Institute of Electrical Engineers convention for his paper on the invention.   After graduating, he formed his first succesful business selling the needle sharpeners.  After that point and for the rest of his life, he continuously had ideas for developments.  Around 1950, he claimed to be the "first" to have an FM broadcast radio in his car. He strung a wire dipole between wooden masts, one mounted to the front bumper and one mounted to the back bumper.  Having completed this just in time for Friday night, he picked up his date (my mom) and drove his two-mast convertible to the "old" Ham's and got a prime spot in the front curb-service lot.  I asked my mom if she tried to crawl under the seat but she said no, everyone loved it!
He start numerous other businesses over the years, all driven by his ham radio beginnings and was awarded many patents for his inventions.  During his professional life, he had the opportunity work closely with many hams including Weldon Fields W4AJT, Bob Best W4JGA, and Don Harris W4BUZ.
During the '80's, he found time to get back into ham radio and passed the advanced class exam and received the call KB4AK.  He had been a regular at the Thursday K&W ham get togethers in the recent past until an injury immobilized him around 2008.  He never pushed ham radio on me but was really happy when I and my son Jace W4JSJ got our licenses.
 
73 John W4DX