Eugene R. Bova (Padre) – WØWPD

Obituary 

From Brian NØVSA:

I miss him very much. He had a very big impact on me and I am still trying to deal with it.

From Pete NEØT:

Padre, an iconic ham and friend to so many.

From Dan WØDFU:

On a web page on our site under testing and accommodations Padre had written about the first testing for my Tech test. He wrote about the testing and the VE teams dedication and commitment to adapting the testing to the requirements to the person being tested.

I found his dedication, professionalism, commitments to the team, the test process, at the utmost highest levels of courtesy and expertise. His confidence in the team, and the support he extended in the testing environment exuded graciously with comfort.

I was fortunate to have him conduct and lead the various teams for all of my testing, Tech, General, and Extra Class licenses.

I enjoyed his directness and sense of humor. Sometime not being short of material to discuss on the weekly net, as far as I am aware, he still holds the repeater time out timer crown.

Padre had a way of instilling his passion, and confidence in his determined excellence in matters which concerned the radio clubs performance and involvement in community.

From Daniel NØBN:

I first met Padre in March 1999 at the VE session for my Technician license. I thought I wanted it just for emergency communications for Y2K but soon fell in love with CW and before the end of the year passed all the tests to get to Extra.

It seems we had somewhat similar personalities in some ways and enjoyed good natured ribbing of each other over the years. We sometimes teased each other about “harassing” the other and generally enjoyed the back and forth banter (although I do think we occasionally got on the other’s nerves!).

When I called him on the phone, I always knew if it was before or after 1800 since he would precisely say “Good afternoon” or “Good evening” as the time required.

Even though I’m not a Believer, I listen to a lot of Catholic Shortwave radio in the summers at the fire tower and enjoyed asking Padre questions about Catholicism and hearing his answers. One of my favorites EWTN personalities was Father Benedict Groeschel who Padre also appreciated and had met (at least) once.

Finally, although I’m sure some in the club knew, I really wasn’t at all aware of how sick Padre was in his final days, weeks and months. It seems he wanted to keep a fairly low profile in his illness. This was in keeping with a brief discussion we had during and shortly after Pope John Paul II’s final days. I told Padre I rather appreciated the fact that John Paul apparently wanted to die almost publicly, thereby perhaps expressing the idea that dying was natural and inevitable, and not necessarily anything to be hidden or ashamed of. Although we didn’t discuss it in detail, I got the impression that Padre either disagreed about the public part or at least was somewhat skeptical. This issue is something we all will face in our own way and time, and it seems Padre chose to be more private. No criticism of his choice is intended.

I very much enjoyed Padre as a comrade ham, personal friend and occasional counselor, and will miss him.

73 de Daniel N0BN