Congratulations to Bill Howell, WB4UYA, on his appointment as District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) for District 7, First Colony. Bill fills the void created when the previous DEC, Joe Imburgia, KI4LXT, was promoted to Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator (ASEC) for Districts 5, 7, 8, and 9.

Bill became interested in Amateur radio as a teenager, although his new-found hobby got off to a slow start. “There was no Elmer I could make contact with. As a matter of fact, I don’t think there were any hams in my small town of Lexington, Virginia,” says Bill of his early days of aspiring to become a ham. However, his interest somewhat influenced his choice of study at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) – Electrical Engineering. In 1969, Bill concluded that the time had come for a ham license. Starting at the Novice level, he soon obtained the Advanced ticket and finally the Extra. Somewhere along the way, he became inactive, but thanks to a life membership in the ARRL, his continued subscription to QST magazine kept him in touch with the hobby.

After retirement, Bill became active again. His major interests are teaching, construction, and emergency operations. The latter interest was somewhat forcibly encouraged by his two hurricane evacuations experiences. The first one ran Bill and his team out of the Outer Banks and resulted in a six hour crawl back to the Peninsula. The second, Floyd, chased them from Shallotte, NC to Charlotte, NC. That one was more serious as Bill could not leave until his mother-in-law completed dialysis in Shallotte. In both cases there were two cars and they lost contact with each other.

While Bill has been through several hurricanes providing shelter communications, his first major emergency support came with Hurricane Isabel. When Katrina struck two years later, he felt compelled to offer communications support. He served in Hancock County, Mississippi, where Katrina came ashore, and saw the complete devastation it caused.

“These experiences have impressed upon me the absolute necessity for disaster planning. This largely means training and preparation for loss of commercial power and communications, and was a prime factor in leading me to accept the DEC post,” says Bill. Assisting him in this mission is Ken Parker, KI4MKD, who was recently appointed Assistant District Emergency Coordinator (ADEC) for District 7.

Congratulations to Joe, Bill, and Ken on their new positions. They collectively bring a wealth of knowledge and skills to Virginia ARES/RACES leadership, and their service to the community is greatly appreciated.