Iwasshocked and saddened to learn ofGeorge Zeller'ssudden passing earliertoday(March20) ina housefire thismorning.I had exchanged emails with Georgeearlier this week onNASWAeditorialmattersashe wasslowlyrecoveringfrom his recent Covid-19 vaccination. The news article inthe online Cleveland Comeback mentionedovercrowdedelectrical outlets/extension cords as the cause of the accidentalfire. Georgewas 71 years old. Georgeand I kneweach other for about 40 years. Georgecame to several DXpeditions at Gifford Pinchot and French Creek StateParks. Weattended many of the same radio hobby gatherings over the years. Forseveral years, I traveled to Cleveland for work; George and I wouldgo out to dinner on those occasions.Naturally,any time my company was mentioned in the local newspaper George wouldeagerlyforward that information to me. Georgealso traveled to the Winter SWL Festival in Plymouth Meeting,Pennsylvania each year to gather with like minded radio people. Heattended other radio conventionstoo over the year’s throughoutthe country. Georgewas well known in the greater Cleveland area as an Economist who keptclose tabs on the Ohio economy. The Economic Indicators project heworked on provided continually updated information on poverty,earnings, and the economy in all Ohio counties and communities, withrelated demographics. In Ohio, Economic Indicators data includeannual income trends for all 612 Ohio school districts. Detailed datawas also available for job growth and payroll earnings in all Ohiocounties goingback to 1979,including measures of the very large job losses suffered by Clevelandand Ohio during the 2000s recession that has lingered longer in Ohiothan it did elsewhere in the United States. Over the year’s hemixed with local political figures and served as a volunteer in anumber of community organizations serving the greater Cleveland area.Hewas a regular on several talk radio programs when Ohio’s economywas the lead topic. Georgewas an active baseball and football fan. He attended baseball gameswherever he could. Hespent time traveling to difference citiesattending games in many major league and minor league baseballstadiums. Irecall making suchatrip to Camden Yards in Baltimore with several others to catch anOrioles-Yankees baseball game whenmy children were youngsters.Hewas an enthusiastic Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Browns fan goingback to the glory days of the 1950’s. Henever forgave the Indians for trading away Rocky Colavito. Fortwentyyears Georgewrote a column aboutunlicensed pirate and clandestine shortwave radio broadcasting newsin Monitoring Times magazine. Hewasalso a contributing editor to Passport to World Band Radio, thedefinitive guide to international shortwave broadcasting frequencies,schedules, and receiving equipment. For decades hewrote a column on Clandestine radio broadcasting in the monthlyissues of The ACE from the Association of Clandestine RadioEnthusiasts. Annually,he hosted the Pirate Radio Forum at the Winter SWL Festival inPlymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania aswell as being the host of the prize raffle at the Saturdaynight banquet.Inrecent years, George was the editor of the Pirate Radio Report columnfor the North American Shortwave Association. He joined NASWA inDecember 1965as a lad of sixteen. Georgewas always fun to be with and a real character to boot. Nomatter what the topic of the conversation was, he had a story thatmay or may not have been pertinent. Therewas never a dull moment when he was part of the group. GeorgeZellerwill be missed by all of us.
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