Who was your first Elmer?

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None of my business really, unless you'd like to share. I hope you do!
Elmers often turn out to be much more interesting that just the endlessly patient grown-ups that get us started in radio.

My "uncle" Christopher, aka to my parents as Mr C A Henn-Collins, GC5ZC, of Mount Durand, St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK, was such fun and fired my interest in Amateur Radio.

He never breathed a word about WW2, beyond that he served, like many others. Imagine my astonishment in later years when I blundered on his Wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Henn-Collins

I was awestruck! I felt so stupid not to have suspected that this was the same mentor who patiently explained how he built a generator of Voice Sideband, by successively filtering an AM signal, and then feeding it to a hefty tubed linear from his basement, and onward to a two-element yagi to get an enormous improvement in QSO range for the transmitted power. Kinda ho-hum today, but it wasn't in the late 1960's, early '70s! And all self-designed and constructed -and sketched out for me on a much treasured QSL card. And as it turns out, along with many other remarkable achievements such as one of the first quartz clocks and much more.

Obit from The Times:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/lieute ... zfbgqw0b96

So why do I share this? Humility with expertise is truly inspiring, and an example to us to aspire to greater than we might imagine...

The remarkable people who made the difference in WW2, and to whom we owe so much today, said very little about their contributions, mostly. I have since blundered onto a little of the remarkable parents of my playmates and school-chums. None of them let on what they did, but now I know a little, and I am left with so much: Gratitude, Inspiration, Example, Admiration, and personally, very great humility.

Check out your Elmer. You might be surprised.....