In honor of Art Rutledge, WA6SLI, SK.

My dear friend Art passed away November 4th, 2026. He was an attorney, a judge, and a marvelous ham radio operator. He was 85.

He was family. He is survived by his wife Diana.

Art's contributions to my amateur radio endeavors were tremendous. He was my first real Elmer, showed me how to operate HF and work the bands.

When I visited his shack above the garage, he would tune his Kenwood TS-830 and Nye Viking and Henry 2K Linear and we would have a lot of fun finding stations on most of the HF bands. I would visit him time to time in Glendale, where he lived and on those occasions we would ride down to "The Candy Store" -- which was the local Ham Radio Outlet on Euclid St very close to his home. I still refer to HRO as The Candy Store. Over coffee at a local diner we would talk about radio, but mostly we would talk about family -- our son was just a few years old at the time -- and we would reminisce about the fact we were both married to wonderful Greek women who took such great care of us. We were lucky.

I actually want this message to be uplifting and so I'll end with a bit of positive thinking here -- there are people who we admire, people we look up to. And, those who we work with in radio are extra special because the bond we have is about a wonderful hobby that everyone can find something interesting.

Ring up your Elmer, if you can. Just say thank you. And if possible share a cup of coffee with them and reminisce about the fun things you both do with amateur radio. It will mean a lot. Thank you Art.