G'day All,
This is a copy of Jim Potts' Eulogy taken from the Codan Group's page.
Regards
Stu
Hi all,
I have received the following copy of the eulogy for Jim's service from his family whom have asked that I pass it onto you all.
His funeral service will be held today at 3pm
Brisbane time.
Eulogy
"Our family immigrated to Australia from England in 1956. As
young kids we found this a strange place full of strange people with funny accents. (We came from Yorkshire and everybody sounded funny to us).
We lived in a hostel in
Wollongong, south of
Sydney in tin huts, we were Pome migrants (or 10 pound Poms). We came on a boat from the old country. During a discussion about immigration, Jim once told me we should think kindly of immigrants as "we were some of the original boat people to land here"
We eventually moved from the hostel to a place called Oak Flats and lived in old tents and a tiny caravan for more than a year while our dad built a house. It was a lifestyle none of us could have ever dreamed about, it was tough but at least it was warm and we loved it.
Somehow Jim fell in love at the age of 9, with not a girl but electronics. Jim had found a friend Kevin, who was a radio/TV technician. Whilst Kevin was a married man with a family, he adopted Jim ( at least we thought he must have because Jim was always in Kevin's workshop whenever Kevin was at
home, nights and weekends.
This was the beginning of a lifelong interest in electronics communication and ammeter radio. Jim was a fabulous student and by the age of 11, he sat for the Australian Ammeter Technical Exam and passed with close to 100%.
Poor Jim, he was still 3 years below the legal age of a Ham Radio Operator. Totally unphased by this, Jim continued to visit Kevin's radio
shack and by the age of 14 (when he was at last let loose on the World Ammeter Radio bands), he was a fully fledged television technician. Jim's interest in electronics continued and when he left school he studied at the Marconi School of Radio and TV in
Sydney. A fully fledged Technician at the age of 18, Jim became Chief Technical Engineer at Channel 9,
Orange NSW.
Jim's insatiable quest for knowledge continued when he decided to become a teacher and studied at the
Wollongong Teachers' College. I think he was the only student ever, to go to class wearing a suit, tie and carrying a briefcase. It was in teachers' college in 1971 where he met and married his bride Jan. Jim and Jan had two children, Virginia and Mark and have been married 36 years. During his teaching years, Jim also attained a Masters Degree in Education.
Jan has always been an incredibly patient and supportive wife. She had to share Jim with his many, many friends around the world on the ever squawking radio. When Jim fitted radio into his 4WD and went looking for the highest mountain to transmit from, Jan stayed
home with the kids, never complaining. (
Well, not to me anyway).
Jim would take to anyone who had an interest in ammeter radio. We loved getting on the airwaves chanting CQ, CQ this is VK 4 BBG (Jim's the handle here.) I'm sure there were times when Jan thought she was married to a pile of flashing diodes, aerials, mounds of wires and the occasional smell of smoke, Surrounded by his two dogs, Jim was always in there, somewhere!
Jim's love of 4W driving was legendary. He travelled from the tip of
Cape York to the southernmost coast of Western Australia and through the deserts on tracks that were often hard to find and always with his electronic communications equipment to stay in touch with the world and keep safe.
Jim would often go outback alone with his electronic friends; he just loved the challenge, danger and solitude of the great outback. I was privileged to travel the outback with Jim 3 years ago from east to west across the Never, Never Land. He was an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience and I will always cherish the memories we shared.
Jim was inspired by the outback. He wrote and published three novels, fictional stories wound into his real experiences on the track. The best known titles of Jim's work were "Son of a 10 Pound Pom" and "White Man's Dreaming", both which can be found in the National Library of Australia.
Not bad for a bloke who taught kids and lived in a world of diodes and transistors. Jim was quietly pleased with his literary achievements but was almost too embarrassed to talk about it.
Jim's electronics hobby was renting radio communication and satellite phones to people going bush. His message was simple: Keep in touch, keep safe, and make it easy to be found if you are in trouble. He was co-moderator of the Codan Outback Radio Group and a couple of other associated web sites.
Through his web sites, Jim stayed in touch with his many friends across Australia and New Zealand who found Jim an endless source of information and encouragement. I know they too will miss his wonderful funny sense of humor.
To best describe Jim, one would need a dictionary of superlatives.
He was a very humble man, a loving husband and father to his kids.
Jim was the most reliable, honest and caring person who valued friendship more than possessions.
A man who loved his family, animals and life and was loved by all who knew him.
Jim was not only our husband, dad, brother and uncle; he was and always will be, our best friend.
We love you Jim."