Paul Boltwood (VE3PLE) died unexpectedly on September 25, 2017. Paul never had to move away from his home in Stittsville, full of his beloved tools, chocolate, precision equipment, and fish ponds. He leaves his wife of 52 years, Lee, daughters Alana (Keith) and Bronwyn (Jason), and at home in BC, close family Cheryl and Andy, and Ruth and John. In 1966, Paul came to work at Computing Devices, then DML, Marconi, etc. Astronomy was his great love: he built his own telescope observatory, and invented the Boltwood Cloud Sensor. Recently he enjoyed ham radio.

A summary of Paul’s contributions to astronomy can be found in the following presentation made to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada: Paul Boltwood: An Astronomer Like No Other.

Paul had been a member of WCARC since obtaining his amateur radio certificate with Advanced Qualification in 2014. His contributions to the club included substantial help with measurements and connectorization of the coax, heliax and rotator cables for the June Contest, hosting the VHF/UHF beacons and design and construction of the 2m WSPR beacon (in progress). He also made presentations on WSPR (March 2015) and amateur astronomy (September 2016). Paul and Lee donated his amateur radio and test equipment to the club for auction to club members and local friends who would be able to use and enjoy it (with proceeds going to the club for future expenses and projects).

The WCARC Executive and members sincerely appreciate the generosity of the Boltwood family.