Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsJerry Fry – Modeler of the Year – 1995
Jerry Fry joined the Gulls sometime in 1993/1994. There are records of him entering the November 1994 thermal duration contest as a sportsman, but no records of him involved with slope racing at the cliff.
It didn’t take long for Jerry to volunteer to be editor for the club newsletter, beginning right away in January 1995 with a great 16-page issue. Being an editor in 1995 was quite a chore. Fortunately, things had converted from typewritten newsletters and xeroxing to newsletters that were typeset on a PC! However even with a PC, there was still considerable effort in figuring out how to make a piece of software work for the production of a three column newsletter, printing it on front and back of a 11x17 sheet of paper so that it could be folded to make a nice newsletter, then stapled, then folded again in order to get to the required smaller size for mailing, then labeled with the address of a member, then taken to the post office for mail by a specific date each month so that it could go out as bulk mail. Not many people wanted to take on this daunting task. John McNeil had done so in 1993; Steve Stricklett did so in 1994 and now it was Jerry’s turn. Surrounded by a lot of great Gulls, he generated some truly amazing newsletters that year.
At the time, the club was still meeting at the San Diego Aerospace Museum. The attendance at these monthly meetings typically ranged from 80 to 100 members although the December 1995 meeting must have set a new record with >170 folks in attendance! Jerry’s newsletters were key to keeping the membership informed as it was well before the Internet and yet the club was just beginning some important new directions, such as the International Hand Launch Glider Festival.
In addition to his duties as newsletter editor, Jerry also felt it was important for us to give back to the community as a club. He started up a school demonstration program where TPGers could visit local area public schools and demo either hi-start launching or javelin style HLG. For the first time ever, the June 1995 newsletter included a list of emails of contacts for other clubs and resources – a list developed by Manny Tau. Jerry Fry noted “Now many of you will say ‘I’ve never used email and I don’t have the slighted idea how to do it.’ I know for a fact that many of you have computers in your home or at work but you’ve never used the modem to do anything but send faxes. I also know that all of you, whether you have a computer or not, have friends who do have computers and they’ll probably be happy to either email your messages for you or show you how to do it yourself….it’s not hard. Really!” This was the state of affairs 25 years ago – simply getting club members to use email for communication. This is a good reminder of how important the newsletter was as a central source of all club information. The newsletter and the club meetings were it!
Also, Jerry wrote a nice article for the July 1995 issue on the merits of PPM vs. PCM for radio transmission. In order to develop this article Jerry emailed some of the “greats” like Joe Wurts, Don Edberg, Manny Tau and others and asked for their opinion. The experts felt that PCM was better than PPM in general.
At the 1995 December holiday party, TPG awarded Jerry Fry with the Modeler of the Year trophy. Ron Scharck noted:
“The ‘Modeler of the Year’ award is presented to that TPG member whose efforts, above and beyond the call of duty, have most influenced the club, both internally and externally, during the past year. Chosen by his peers, the Modeler of the Year, is that single person who has contributed the most to the advancement of the club. Due in great part to his outstanding work in developing the TPG newsletter into a state-of-the-art publication that is acknowledged and admired as one of the outstanding club newsletters in print, the 1995 Modeler of the Year award was presented to 1995 TPG Newsletter Editor, Jerry Fry. Thank you, Jerry, for your zealous drive to perfection. The club is, without doubt, a better club because of your efforts.”
Jerry continued flying with TPG for several years and continued with his goal of community outreach via school programs and also an annual TPG fundraiser for Toys for Tots.