Buc Fitch Remembers Paul Gregg
Paul Gregg
Engineer, Broadcaster, Gentleman, Gentle Man, Friend
Paul Erwin Gregg
January 15, 1924
May, 2014
6/1/14 – From Buc Fitch:
Paul’s friendship with me came late in our lives when both of us had moved into our “seniority,” so I am ill-suited to eulogize Paul in his totality.
That being said, I have always felt the best recollections are not lists of accomplishments (and his are many) but those that contrast the serious and the humorous personal experiences that each of us had with that person. Most of the humorous fall into the “you had to be there” category so I will leave those to others.
But one semi-serious occasion demonstrates the esteem in which Paul was held.
The occasion was a visit to one of the multi-station AM diplexers he had designed and his firm had fabricated. I was with Paul on a “busman’s holiday.” Simply put: one of the station input ports on this assembly had inexplicably moved in impedance. Paul was there to reset this point.
Glancing over the design and inspecting the circuitry I noticed a coil whose twin I had had trouble with elsewhere (physical distortion with a change in value). I asked Paul to humor me and move the tap one turn, so we could see the magnitude and direction change in impedance. We made the one-turn move and serendipitously, the input impedance was then very nearly 50 ohms j zero !!!
The assembly of local engineers were stunned with my “erudition” not realizing dumb luck when they saw it.
However my truthful comment to follow was: “remember gentlemen, the master ‘yoda’ Paul, taught me everything I know.”
With their nodding of agreement and in all seriousness, everyone recognized and agreed that he was a great and sharing teacher, a wonderful mentor to many, and a true collegial participant on shared projects. Paul had taught all of us a great deal of broadcast engineering and, more importantly, how to live.
Although I am a Pentecostal charismatic Christian, there is an affectionate sentiment, embroidered in the traditions of the Jewish faith, that has great human validity and which comforts me when someone loved has died. The faithful feel that the loved one will always stay near us, that they have not really passed, are not truly gone, until they are forgotten.
So let us keep Paul close to us in our memory.
Paul we will never forget you.
Buc Fitch
