Saturday, January 6, 2018

Colorful 1960s QSL card from the White Rose City


Papergreat's first QSL card of 2018 is this bright and cheery specimen from the 1960s. (The pre-printed information on the fill-in-the-blanks back of the card has a spot for the date that indicates 196__, which is how we know what decade it's from.) As you can see, the text on the front states:

Greetings from the WHITE ROSE CITY
KCC 3373
YORK • PENNA.
RONALD E. (JOE) SELLERS
835 S. Albemarle St.

There's also the logo boasting "The Colonial Capitol of the U.S.," in reference to York. For the full tangled tale of York's place in United State capital history, one good article to check out is this York Daily Record column by June Lloyd from 2015.

So who is Sellers? Turning back to the York Daily Record, here's a little biographical tidbit about him that I found in the October 2, 1971, issue of that newspaper, in the Social News:
"Ensign Ronald E. Sellers, son of Mr. and Mrs. Willis A. Sellers, 835 S. Albemarle St., and husband of the former Joyce L. Neiman, 1022 Edison St., was awarded a master of science degree in computer science by Pennsylvania State University at the recent summer commencement exercises. Sellers, a 1961 graduate of William Penn Senior High School, was employed by Apollo Ad Service Inc., before entering the Navy in 1963. He received basic training at the Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill., and advanced training at the Naval Aviation Fire Control Technical School, Memphis, Tenn. In 1965 he was assigned to the USS Independence serving off the coast of Vietnam. Upon his return from Vietnam, he was assigned to Naval Air Station, Oceana, Va., and returned to advance electronics school in 1966. In 1967 Sellers was selected to undergo a four-year college program sponsored by the Navy, and was awarded a bachelor of science degree and commissioned an ensign after completing Officer Candidate School in December, 1970. Sellers pursued graduate studies in computer science, and since completing his studies he has been assigned to the USS Blue Ridge, homeported in San Diego, Calif."
Having graduated from high school in 1961, Sellers would be about 74 years old today. It would be interesting to get in touch with him, ask him about his ham-radio days and see if he wants this QSL card back.

2 comments:

  1. When I came across this name in a BR link it rang a bell, especially his academic studies of graduate computer science. I found his name in the '73 BR on-line cruise book in Operations as an officer, but because of the strange way they listed the scanned names on that page, I'm not sure of his mug. I didn't find him in either the '72 or '75 cruise books for BR and I have no other memories of that name. It is relevant to me because he may have been in that time period on BR that I got the Operation Buckshot assignment for helping EW to track those first Soviet satellites for radar tracking of our bird farms (US-A, US-P). I was told by my officers that they may have an officer aboard BR that could help me, but never heard any more about him or his name.

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    http://www.e-yearbook.com/yearbooks/Blue_Ridge_LCC_19_Cruise_Book/1973/Page_140.html
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