Ferne passed away at the BUPA Coburg Vic. Beloved wife of Cyril (dec) Mother of David and Sue (dec) Mother-in-law to Rae and Grandmother to Shane, Rhiannon, Glen, Craig, Emma and Justin.
Funeral held at Joyce Chapel Fawkner Cemetery 10.15am Wed. 26th August 2015. 22 persons were in attendance including OTVA Robert & Judith Hall, Warren Marshall and Lynette McKenzie.
Joan was one of the girls working under Vi Harrison in the Printergram/Telephonists room

I was waiting for the tour guide at King Solomon’s Cave in northern Tassie on Saturday when I saw this bloke approaching at a rush so he could make the tour.

It was Ian Marshall from Eng Branch. To compound the connection, I’d bought Ian’s Land Rover from him a few years back.

Cheers,

Ron Beckett

Many thanks to Charlie Rudd for passing on this reference published in 2015.
https://www.dukeupress.edu/The-Undersea-Network

It makes interesting reading even to a person who did not have a lot to do with the introduction of undersea cables. The eBook costs $14.28 from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WO58MBI) which is an $80 saving to the actual printed book.

The reference covers the Pacific basin extensively with sections devoted to COMPAC and SEACOM. Co-axial cables with undersea repeaters are a child of the 1950’s, COMPAC was right up there with it.

The thing that Charlie found fascinating in the book is the coverage of the political machinations with USA generally and AT&T in particular trying to muscle in on COMPAC and how they were repulsed. Also the decision to use Hawaii instead of Fanning Is., the concessions that had to be made to the Americans.

If you have been involved in cables it is quite good reading. Enjoy!

Here are some pics from John’s 90th birthday celebrations, held at the Tweed Heads home of his son Mark.

The Tweed Valley sub branch of the OTVA presented  John with a suitably aged scotch, and some glasses which we promptly filled and toasted to  his continued good health.

Those of us present from Left  to Right are:

Gary Samuels, Bill Newman, Steve Marshall, Bill Daniels, John Toland, John Bennett, David Kidd, Bob Collins

cheers

John Bennett

Murwillumbah

Vernon Yen has advised that Kim Ayoub passed away on 10 August 2015 after a long illness. Kim’s wife, Hiatt, contacted him recently and passed on the sad news.

Our sincere condolences are extended to Kim’s family and friends.

May He Rest In Peace.

Allan Hennessy has just informed me that Henry’s Barbara has just given him the sad news that Henry passed away yesterday afternoon after he was released from St George Hospital and being moved into a Nursing Home.

As funeral arrangements are clarified I will update you further.

I have known Henry since about 1980 when he was Manager of the Paddington Terminal until 1985-6 when he went to Maritime. I have always found him to be generous with his time and advice. He was a member of the OTVA Committee for in excess of 12 years and was OTVA President for a number of them.

He was always full of stories about events that transpired in OTC in which he was involved and the characters of OTC that had impacted upon him over the many years in which he worked for OTC after moving from PMG. He had his memory right till the end and there are many untold stories that have gone to heaven with him.

May He Rest In Peace

Peter Bull

Keith McCredden and Ted Bastow have alerted me to the passing of Lou Brown yesterday.

Lou and Keith worked together at Fanning Island in the early 1960s and they had remained good friends ever since.

Keith will provide more detailed info when it comes to hand.

May He Rest In Peace.

Lou retired in January 1985 after 28 years with OTC. He started as a Traffic Assistant in SOR and retired as Senior Marketing Officer with the Marketing Division.

When Les Ayers spoke to Charlie in early to mid May Charlie had said that he was in considerable pain and off to see the doctor the following day. That is apparently when he was told that him that his cancer had returned.

On Monday 15 June 2015 Les advised that Charlie was in the Macquarie University Hospital and it was at this time that the doctors had told him that is was untreatable. Les advised that Charlie had declined visitors. When Les spoke to him he seemed quite cheerful but heavily sedated.

On Tuesday 30 June 2015 Les managed to contact Charlie’s daughter who told him that he had passed away last Monday.

The funeral service is delayed as Charlie’s daughter is out of Sydney and some relatives are overseas. She advised that the funeral details will be in Thursday’s SMH.  The service will be at Rookwood Catholic Chapel but the date and time of the service are as yet unclear.

If anyone has any photos of Charlie and/or a Tribute that they would like to share please email them to me and I will upload them to the OTVA web site.

May He Rest In Peace

The below excerpt is from the January 1989 Transit

The below is an excerpt from the August 1985 Transit