President’s Perspective
Dave Brown — AMA president
One thing I’ll tell you about the job of being AMA president—or being the president of virtually any association—is that you have to like people.
Oh sure, there will be those times when you feel as if you want to box someone’s ears. And there will be a few people who get under your skin so much that you just want to scream, but you had better be able to get over it, as this is a “people” kind of job.
In dealing with people, you find that some of those with whom you have the most intense disagreements are the ones for whom you ultimately develop the greatest respect.
One such colleague was Ed McCollough, with whom I argued during most of his long career on the Executive Council. Please understand that Ed and I could disagree about the direction from which the sun would rise!
Last year, when the vast majority of the world accepted the year 2000 as the start of the millennium, Ed was among the first to argue that 2001 would be the start of the millennium.
In the course of normal conversation, each time I would refer to 2000 as the millennium, he would try to correct me. I will admit that even I thought he was technically right; I preferred to go along with the majority of the world’s population. And Ed—well, Ed was Ed. I hate to admit it, but right now I hope Ed was right in the case of the last argument we had (Shh! Don’t tell him I said that!); that would allow me to consider 2000 the end of a millennium and hope for a fresh start in 2001.
The year 2000 was going reasonably well until October when, during a festive dinner at the RCHTA (Radio Control Hobby Trade Association) show with the AMA crew, Programs Director Jay Mealy’s cell phone rang.
It was longtime AMA employee Greg Chartrand with the terrible news that Bob Vojslavek had died from complications following hip-replacement surgery.
This was a blow to all of us. Bob had been a friend, an AMA employee, and a staunch supporter of AMA for many years. In addition, Bob’s wife Mary Lou is the Operations/Administrative Director at AMA, and the office staff took his passing pretty hard.
I attended the memorial gathering at the Vojslavek home near AMA Headquarters in Muncie. It was obvious that a couple members of the staff, Technical Director Steve Kaluf and Greg Chartrand, were instrumental in organizing the tribute and were helping Mary Lou through this tough time.
It was a perfect example of how close-knit our people are.
It was only about a month later when we learned that Steve Kaluf’s father had become ill, and unfortunately he failed fairly rapidly. Steve was close to his father, who was an aeromodeler and had introduced Steve to this great sport. Steve took some time to attend to his father’s affairs, and returned to Headquarters a couple of weeks before Christmas.
I hadn’t talked to Steve until he called early in the morning approximately a week before Christmas. I immediately expressed my condolences for his father, but Steve said that wasn’t the end; he was calling to let me know that Greg Chartrand had died while shoveling snow at his mother’s house in Chicago.
At first I couldn’t believe him. It couldn’t be—Greg was a young guy, only 45, but Steve assured me it was. Although the first suspicion was a heart attack, it was later learned that an aneurysm had caused his death.
Greg was responsible for the Headquarters site maintenance. Anyone who has been to the AMA facility in Muncie can appreciate his contributions.
A very dedicated employee, Greg could be counted on in any situation of need. I’ve seen him show up at all hours of the day or night to handle any maintenance emergency.
Although being a good employee is one thing, he was also a good friend to many. While standing with Greg’s wife and Executive Director Joyce Hager at the calling hours, his wife commented that the funeral parlor had done such a good job because Greg was an organ donor. Somehow that was comforting, as it so fit Greg. He gave of himself to the end, and then gave some more. That was Greg. Godspeed, my friend.
I’m willing to consider 2001 the start of the millennium—the end of the last one was not so good—but don’t tell Ed! I’ll never hear the end of it!
Actually, the millennium hasn’t started out all that well. I just learned that Cliff Wierick, past president of AMA, suffered a serious stroke which resulted in some paralysis.
Hopefully our prayers will help him recover from this setback.
Dave
Dave Brown AMA president dbrown@dbproducts.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
