SILENT KEY
VICTOR ST.LAURENT - K1JZN
27 August 1914 - 18 March 2000




Vic was a lifetime ham radio technician and experimenter. His legacy to ham radio is the great ham radio family that he leaves behind and includes sons Roger (W6AQC), Robert (no ticket but we still work on him), Raymond (W3HFL), Ronald (ND5S), Roland (KV1O) and Richard (N1CWT). Yes, all the boys' names start with "R". In addition, he leaves his daughter-in-law Sue (KF5LG) and grandson Steve (N1RTU); Ron's wife and son respectively.

Vic was born in Fall River, Massachusetts and moved to Rhode Island as a child. He spent the rest of his life in Rhode Island. As happened to many people during the Great Depression, Vic left school early (in the 8th grade) to help supplement his family's income. He came from a family of six boys and two girls. His formal education ended then, but he never stopped learning. He became a top-notch machinist and toolmaker. During World War II he worked in jobs to support the war effort as he already was the father of two sons. Eventually, four of his six sons would wear U.S. Air Force uniforms. During the war, Vic worked on the prototype of one of the Norden bombsights. This bombsight was a major contribution and pivotal development of the war effort and was used in the famous B17 bombers. Vic's brother, Leo, gave his life as a waist gunner on a B17. Vic ended his work career as an electronics/mechanical inspector for the Raytheon Company.

One of Vic's favorite ham stories was when he won a 6 element, 6 meter beam at the Swamscott Ham Convention in the early 60's. He topped off his tower with that antenna and began to work a bunch of fellows from Puerto Rico on 6 meter AM. All his buddies were phoning him, as they could not hear the signals that he was working in rapid fire. Vic still kept that stack of KP4 QSL cards all these years.

Of humble means, Vic cherished each piece of ham equipment he owned. I still remember the kits he built from Knight, Eico and Heath. Vic was also a great experimenter. I remember seeing wires running through the walls of his shack terminating at some hulk of surplus equipment to "borrow" a stage in the circuitry and bring that back to the shack via other wires.

Vic, at 85, was anxiously looking forward to the day he could turn his Tech license in for his General license under the new guidelines. Unfortunately, he missed that event by less than a month. Vic would join in on the weekly family skeds at the shack of his son Roland. These skeds will continue in his memory.

His six sons carried Vic to his final resting-place. He joins his loving wife, Irene, who preceded him in death by 9 years.

-- Printed in WORLDRADIO Magazine, June 2000, page 31 --

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