I was shocked when I read in Friday's newspaper that K1EM had died on Tuesday.
K1EM, Clem Paskus, and I go back a long way. I first encountered Clem during a VHF contest back in the 1970s and I probably logged him in nearly every VHF contest I participated in after that.
Clem lived in Terryville in my grandparents' neck of the woods and when I moved to Compounce Mountain, we were only four miles apart as the crow flies, but I usually only saw Clem face-to-face at the Dayton Hamvention, 605 miles away as that same crow flies.
Another time I ran into Clem was at a big polka bash here in town, where he was attending with his wife. I was not surprised to see Clem there because Clem and I were Poles; he often called me "Stash" or "Stashu."
Funny how you become friends with someone you meet on the air, but you have no idea what they do in the real world. Back about 15 years ago, I was changing channels on the cabled television and while passing by the public access channel, I noticed someone who looked like Clem. So I hung back to see if it was my old radio friend and indeed it was. Clem was speaking at a town meeting and he was wearing a police uniform. Turns out that not only was he a policeman, but he was the chief of police!
I missed Clem on the air and at Hamvention the last few years. Little did I know he was seriously ill. Now I will miss him forever.
Do widzenia, K1EM.
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