Keith Gray has advised that Don’s wife, Kathryn, has passed on the sad news that that Don has passed away. Other friends have advised that Don had a sudden and fatal heart attack.

Don was a trainee technician from 1962 to 1964  at the Paddington Training School run by Jon Cresswick. Keith was in the same group as Don.

Keith is not sure where Don worked in OTC after he completed his Field Training so he would be interested to hear from other Vets where he may have worked.

During the last few years Keith had kept in touch with Don attending a few get togethers for lunch and meetings with other ex OTC guys.

May He Rest In Peace.

David Solomon has advised that Colin Reddel passed away on Friday 15th July.

Colin worked for OTC in the satellite area in Head Office. He made a number of trips to Carnarvon, when I worked there.

Later he worked with the National Satellite Division which became Aussat. Colin was based in Los Angeles for over two year, monitoring the Hughes ground system contract covering the Belrose and Lockridge sites. He was my manager for the 10 months I worked with Hughes in L.A.

Colin continued with Optus until he retired to Corlette at Port Stephens.

Colin was diagnosed with an aggressive prostate cancer 6 weeks ago.

Colin is survived by his wife Jenni and son Greg, who live at Corlette and his oldest son Stephen, who lives in the U.K.

A memorial service will be held at Gateway Presbyterian Church in Anna Bay at 11am on Wednesday 27th July.

May He Rest In Peace.

Below is a photo of Colin (tallest in the centre) with a group of young adults at a Carnarvon Church event, circa 1971 or 1972 (supplied by David Solomon)

Jim Simpson has relayed the sad news provided by Joy Goodman that her partner, Bob Goodman, has passed away last night (Monday 27 June 2022).

Jim has previously advised the Vets that Bob had been unwell for a long time and in care, though his memory of his special time & involvement with OTC/NASA remained firm.

Bob had a high profile involvement in the co-ordination of international telecommunications services via OTC in support of NASA’s past space missions, not least the Apollo 11 Moon Landing on 21^st July 1969.

Jim offered to share this sad news with colleagues who knew Bob during his working life:

• OTVA veterans
• John Sarkissian (Parkes Deep Space Radio Telescope) and Colin Mackellar, both of whom have close links with others that Bob worked with in those days in the NASA Tracking Stations in Tidbinbilla, Honeysuckle Creek
• Mike Dinn, former Deputy Director for NASA in Canberra.

The members of the OTVA have expressed their sincere condolences to Joy at this sad time.

In keeping with Bob’s wishes the funeral service will be a family/private affair.

Kevin William Shea passed away on 28.5.2022 age 81   (3.12.1940 – 28.5.2022) in hospital of heart failure complications.

Kevin started at OTC (A)  Queen Street Melbourne 10.8.1959 as C/A , ITO, SITO, FAX, until Redundancy ?1988

Kevin’s other interest  Music Teacher at Collingwood Tech, until his retirement.

The Funeral Service will be held in the Crick Chapel Fawkner Crematorium on TUESDAY 7^th JUNE at 1.00pm

Loving companion of Marion.  Loved and Loving father of Brett and Andrea.

Father-in-law of Kelly and Chris.  Adored by his Grandchildren Zaree, EJ, Wil, Maddie and Brodie.

Will be missed greatly.  Travel well through the gates.

On behalf of the OTVA we extend our sincere sympathy and condolences to family and friends.

Robert Hall

President OTVA Melbourne

John Barker has advised of the passing of Phil Psaila who John advised was probably in his late 60s. Phillip passed way at 3 PM Monday 9^th May 2022 from pancreatic cancer. You may recall Phil from OTC Engineering and Training. He will be sadly missed by wife, Kim, and his children, Vivian and Thomas.

Kim messaged Neale Hoggan on Monday 16 May that Phil wanted cremation only, no service.

Phil’s cremation will be on Saturday 21st May at Wagga Wagga – No service.

The family is having a private small family lunch for Phil after the cremation.

I well remember Phil from my days at Paddington Terminal. Phil was a happy go lucky friendly person who was well liked and respected by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.

If you have any memories of Phil that you would like to share with his friends and family via the OTVA web site or just with others on this email distribution list please email them to me indicating your preference and I will share them around.

May He Rest In Peace

John Bennett has passed on the sad news of the passing of John Toland.

Mark Toland called JB to advise that John had passed away last Sunday, 12 December aged 96 after complications with eating.

A Service won’t be held until February. Mark will advise of the date, time and place once those details are known.

The below photo of John was found in the Transit library and was taken at the Bounty Day Picnic in 1983

According to Barbara’s daughter, Elizabeth (Libby)  Barbara been suffering from memory loss for the past 2 years and had put herself into Ferndale Gardens Aged Care facility in Mortdale in the southern suburbs of Sydney to get help and reduce the burden on her family and the staff of the IRT Retirement Village in Peakhurst to which she moved after Henry’s passing 6 years ago in 2015.

Libby said that Barbara started to feel unwell on Sunday 14^th November and developed a headache. Barbara had a stroke on the Wednesday and passed away  on the following Saturday (20.11.21).

From Death Notice in Sydney Morning Herald (dated 27 November 2021)

Barbara Cranfield (16.02.1933 0 20.11.2021)

Beloved wife of Henry (dec.), loving father of Elizabeth and Robert, mother-in-law of Therese, Dear Grandma of Michael and sister to Robert and Margaret.

Always in our Hearts

Family and friends of Barbara are invited to attend her funeral service to be held at Mary Mother of Mercy Chapel, Rookwood Catholic Cemetery, Barnet Ave, Rookwood on Tuesday November 30, 2021 commencing at 11.00am.

No flowers by request.

John Morrison has provided the sad news of the passing of Trevor Pike.

Noticed Trevor’s name in today’s obits. He apparently passed away on 26^th September, no other info was listed.

I had a Christmas card from him in 2019 which he said in part,

“have been in and out of hospital most of 2019 and will be glad to see the end of 2019. I’ve been undergoing chemo and radiation therapy, after having a whipples operation in Canberra for pancreatic cancer.  I’ve lost the pancreas, spleen, gall bladder and other bits and pieces as well as 15kg in weight. Will find out the results early next year”

He then said would be in touch when/if he got to Sydney – unfortunately he never contacted me. It sounds like his last couple of years would have not been pleasant.

John  recalls that Trevor was a member of the Vets, at least at one stage. John remembers going to a vets outing at the Mandarin Club in Goulburn Street with him.

That would have been at least 20 years ago as that was about when Keith McCredden encouraged Col Kelly and me to join the Vets.

If you have any Tributes and/or memories of Trevor that you would like to share with other Vets and for upload to the OTVA web site please email them to me.

May He Rest In Peace

Among his many achievements Phil’s LinkedIn profile (provided by Greg Sachs) states that he is a Distinguished Life Member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Australia.

Phillip is regularly retained by business brokers to write Information Memoranda promoting the sale of small and medium enterprises. Engaged by two national broker groups, he has documented over 2,000 businesses for sale, with market values up to $4,000,000.

The industries covered are extremely diverse, extending from IT Applications, to manufacturing, transport, business services, child care and all aspects of hospitality.

Phillip is flexible in the nature, size and duration of projects. Phillip creates attractive fact-focussed concise business documents, plans and reports, which integrate business strategy with information technology, engineering, law and accountancy as required.

His background is in Management, Engineering & IT roles, for 28 years, in the International Telecommunications Industry. Phillip also has a strong background in the not-for-profit sector and labour law.

Wallace Donald has also provided the below Tribute to Phil:

In the mid 1970’s I became a Member of the NSW Committee of the APEA. The aim was to further the Industrial strength of the Commonwealth Govt employees versus the control of the NSW Branch of the APEA exerted by Committee Members from the NSW Electricity Commission. After about 3 years I found that I needed to step aside for personal reasons. I searched high and low in OTC for a suitable replacement and eventually I passed on my Committee Membership to Phillip. He entered the fray as  a somewhat novice politician, but obviously went from strength to strength over time. He had found his best fit slot in life! Both Philip and I had wins by joining the APEA Committee.

Wallace Donald provided the following recollection of Ian:

Ian Bailey did work for me and was quite smart. He worked on the Installation of Satellite Earth Station Equipment with me at Moree , etc. Always laconic, quiet, but very competent. He always considered issues carefully and would advocate his viewpoint convincingly.  As others have remarked he did enjoy travel; especially to the Philippines. I visited him in his home some years later, about 1990, and met his new wife. At that time he was living in a terrace in Paddington alongside former Sydney Mayor, Frank Sartor.

Greg Sachs has provided the below Death Notice:

Jim Jensen has added the following:

Ian must have communicated his fondness for OTC to his family for this to be subsequently reported in ton his passing!