I received the following from Al Rendon:

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Syd Furman, W6QWK, one of SBARA’s long time friends and supporters. Syd was licensed in 1939 and had the same call all his life. He was responsible for starting the Fremont area T-Hunt, coordinated the communications for the Fremont Freewheeler Primavera Bike Ride and was on the Board of SBARA for many years. Syd received a degree in chemistry from UCLA and worked his entire career for General Electric. He gave to his community by being on the Union City School Board for 20 years. Those of us who had the privilege of knowing Syd will dearly miss him.

Syd’s daughter Linda adds: It seems that some of your members know of my father’s passing on Aug 14. I would like to let you all know that his Memorial Service will be held Oct. 6, 2:00 pm in the Symninoff Temple at the Masonic Home in Union City (34400 Mission Blvd., Union City, CA 94587). It is my intent to obtain my license and use Dad’s call sign – I’ve heard those letters all my life and it will be an honor to continue sending them over the airwaves. If anyone has questions, please feel free to contact me: Linda Furman Clary, Linda.clary@mcsi.net (Linda NULL.clary%40mcsi NULL.net)

On February 3rd 2011 Little Bob, KE6KHW, passed away at home after a rough bout of cancer. He was not unfamiliar with this battle since it was one he had fought before, but this time around he couldn’t fight it like before. But he didn’t go with out trying.

Arnold, KQ6DI, remembers:  “Bob was also a pilot, and flew skydivers out of Livermore. He told a story about how he was climbing out of Livermore with skydivers, and adjusted the engine mixture (as needs to be done in airplanes), but just a little too much this time. Well, the engine sputtered, and ALL of the skydivers felt much more comfortable out of the airplane than in, so in a couple of seconds, they were all gone. As if Bob actually had control over passengers escaping from an airplane, he got in a little trouble for having them leave when they weren’t over the ‘drop zone’. Bob would also let me know when the skydivers were doing something really interesting like jumping at midnight. Skydiving wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I’m glad Bob got me to go out and watch.”

A viewing is scheduled for Wednesday Feb. 9, 2011 at 4:00 – 6:00 pm at Roselawn Gardens Cemetery in Livermore, 1240 N. Livermore Ave, His funeral services will be Tuesday Feb. 15, 2011 at 1:30pm at San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery in Gustine CA.

There will also be a memorial service put on by his California Parachute Club friends they will be doing a missing man formation jump-that will be  after Feb 24th in Byron CA but we do not have a specific date set just yet.

RIP Little Bob KE6KHW