Admittedly, I do not know a lot about Barry
Goldwater, other than that he was a U.S. senator for many years, and was a general in the Arizona Air
Force Reserves. Until recently reading the letter to the editor of American Aircraft Modeler (November
1970), I was not aware that he was a very avid aircraft modeler. The letter was written by none other
than Cleveland model's Edward T. Packard.
Senator Goldwater's building interests were not limited to model aircraft. Per an article in the
New York Times (1992):
"Heath's phasing out its kits 'leaves the amateur, like me, no place to turn,' said former Senator Barry
Goldwater, who used to fly to Heath's headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich., twice a year in his private
plane to buy kits. 'It's just that people today are getting terribly lazy, and they don't like to do
anything they can pay someone else to do,' said Mr.
Goldwater, 83 years old,
who has managed to wire up more than 100 Heathkits. 'I think the current generation is certainly missing
out.'"
Goldwater was also an avid amateur radio operator from the early 1920s onwards, with the call signs
6BPI, K3UIG and K7UGA.
|