Harvey Rogers
Whit was a wonderful speaker and story teller. He loved radio and everything related to it technically. I had the great honor to work a little with him at Continental Electronics in Dallas. His title there, if I recall correctly, was Radio Scientist. He certainly had the mind of a scientist. I don't know all of the different things he did in his career at CE but I do know that when there was an usual radio engineering problem to solve, Whit was called in. He lived electromagnetic fields…a very abstract concept. Whit could make this concept come alive and make it quite understandable and he did so on various occasions at local Hamfests like Hamcom and in a textbook he wrote around 1962. I was very fortunate to attend one of his talks at Hamcom many years ago. The subject was the vertical antenna. I was spellbound!! I wonder if anyone ever recorded any of these. I loved to hear him speak. I think his father was a lawyer. Whit's speech was beautiful to listen to. I don't know anyone that could speak like he does. It was a joy to hear him talk about anything and he knew many things and had many stories related to his travels and work for Continental. I believe he was one of the first employees there. Again, my memory is not great but I think Continental started a little after WWII. It had many markets, all related to high power radio frequency generation, which included large broadcast transmitters. I believe some, if not all of the very earliest Voice of America transmitters were designed and built by Continental. This company has an incredible history of its own and Whit was there during most of it!! I was saddened to see nothing here when I came upon this place. Whit was quite a guy and made significant contributions to the radio art. All those who knew him really appreciated this him and respected him. He was someone very special! He was also a very good writer. He wrote a book called; "Radio-Electronic Transmission Fundamentals". By the time I went to work for Continental around 1986, this book had long been out of print. It took years of encouragement by the engineers there, and others I am sure, to convince him to put out a 2nd edition, so us "younger folks" could drink from his knowledge and experience. There may have been other obstacles as well but thank the Lord, it finally happened. The book is still available and if you have interest in RF generation, amplification, transmission, radiation or propagation, you will benefit from this book and you will enjoy reading it. His favorite term for electricity is juice, as in turning on the juice. I smile to myself as recall a conversation he was having with some of us at Continental about an electrical problem using the term juice…you just don't expect that word to come out of the mouth of such a proper, sophisticated, well educated, intelligent, southern gentleman! I wish I knew more about Whit and there must be others who do. Of course many of his colleagues have also passed on. Continental had a tremendous cache of engineering talent and Whit was one of these jewels. He is certainly missed!!!