Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsJerry Fry – Co-Modeler of the Year – 1998
Jerry Fry was the winner of the 1995 TPG Modeler of the Year trophy and it wasn’t long beforel Jerry was awarded the trophy again – in 1998 – a co presentation of the award to both Jerry Fry and George Joy.
Jerry joined the Gulls in about 1993/1994. Very rapidly he volunteered for service on the board, aptly serving as newsletter editor in 1995 during a time when the club was really advancing along. His award in 1995 was a direct result of this considerable effort to publish huge, complete, novel newsletter issues each month.
But Jerry wasn’t done with his commitment to the TPG. He handed off the newsletter editor position to Dick La Barre and focused on TD competition in 1996 along with his son Ryan, attending many of the southern California soaring contest (SC2) events. That year Jerry finished in 18th overall in the SC2 series helping TPG to first place as a club (6 of the top 10 pilots were from TPG; Fred Sage, Patrick Dionisio, Keith Finkenbiner, George Joy, Arthur Markiewicz, and Don Van Gundy). Jerry also finished 1997 in first place in the Advanced division for the TPG monthly unlimited TD series while Ryan Fry ended up in second in Expert.
However, headlining the January 1998 newsletter was the title “On the Internet with TPG!” Jerry Fry took it upon himself to bring the club into the new internet age with our first website and – wait for it – email addresses! To quote Jerry “Soon, anyone in the world will be able to learn all about TPG, have maps to all of our flying sites, have access to an electronic version of our newsletter, and even know your monthly contest scores…better start practicing!” He added many other benefits of online weather, calendars of events, video libraries, links to vendors, online classified ads, email access to board members, heck even “up-to-the-minute traffic reports for San Diego and LA”. Jerry was thinking far ahead at a time when many modelers had barely heard of the internet, had yet to have an email address, were still using modems and AOL, etc. Jerry set off on a quest to build this for the club.
Meanwhile the newsletter went from pretty good to AMAZING under Ron Scharck’s command as newsletter editor. The issues were averaging 25-30 pages of new material each month, with members writing columns, etc. In short – there would be plenty of fodder for a website, if Jerry could pull this off! Many, many members were contributing with articles, stories, and photos on a monthly basis. The website made its initial debut February 17, 1998. By March it included a search function, photos, links, TPG store with photos and online ordering, A short blurb about the new website on the new “Radio Control Soaring Exchange” (RCSE) and boom, hundreds of new hits on the website. Jerry continued flying in TD contests when not coding html. Having finished the basis of the website, by late 1998 Jerry kindly volunteered to serve as club president in 1999.
At the TPG holiday party on December 9, 1998, the membership voted on the Modeler of the Year, resulting in a tie between Jerry Fry and George Joy. The website had already attracted 11,000 hits, “acting as a virtual information center for anyone interested in this hobby from anywhere in the world.” The Modeler of the Year trophy was well deserved. It’s a pleasure to realize that our website continues, having been redesigned over the years, but still introducing the world to TPG decades later. Thanks to Jerry Fry for his insight in getting us started down this path.
