It is with great regret that we note the passing of Bob Hawksley VK2GRY. Bob passed away peacefully at his home last Saturday, 18 August 2012, surrounded by his family.
Bob, who also sported the callsign G3GBP, was raised in the village Bulmer, near Sudbury, Suffolk, in the UK. He moved to Australia in 1957, but returned to the UK with his wife Kay in 1962. They returned with their young family to Australia in 1971, and settled in Newport on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
His friends at the Manly-Warringah Radio Society remember Bob with great fondness; he was never short of an interesting story, be it about his posting to Iraq during the Second World War, or of his subsequent work at the Woomera and Maralinga missile test ranges. He once presented a very enlightening and entertaining lecture entitled “Rocket and Bomb Testing” at both the Manly-Warringah and Hornsby clubs; the notes of which you can read here.
Bob’s command of the English language was another great source of delight in conversation, as were his mental library of disarmingly obscure but succinct analogies, and his charming habit of commencing emails with a salutation in classical Latin.
Bob was also the author of several books: “Snapshots: An Essex Village Childhood 1929-1945”, and two mystery novels, “The Ghost of Beckett Hall” and “No Suspicious Circumstances”.
Bob’s final send off was on Friday, where his friends and family gathered to pay their respects and share their fond memories of him. The Manly-Warringah Radio Society extends its deepest sympathy to his family. We will miss Bob, “Our Very Own Rocket Scientist”.
Vale Bob Hawksley VK2GRY / G3GBP
I worked with Bob in 1994-95 at Sydney Electricity which was renamed as Energy Australia.
We were employed as Technical Writer contractors and he was quite interested in my amateur radio activities.
He amazed my with his ability to partly read high-speed morse.
Due to my suggestions he applied for his Aust license as VK2GRY.