Dale E. Drake W7GMY

Dale Eugene Drake died in the morning of December 22, 2016, at 2:30 at the age of 83 at the Halifax Hospice Care Center in Orange City, FL from a long battle with Prostate Cancer. He leaves his wife of 30 years, Estela Drake; his son Jeremy Drake and wife Jayzel Drake; his grand-daughter Allison Russell who lives in the state of Washington. Dale was born in Le Grand, California but his family moved in Washington State. He was raised in Concrete, Washington. In his early years, he helped his parents' family business in logging industry and eventually managed the business for several years. Later, he owned an engineering company, Enertherm, Inc. with main office in Mount Vernon, Washington specializing in the design, engineering and construction of incineration and energy recovery systems.

In 1976, Enertherm acquired an Alaskan firm, Prudhoe Refuse Company, Inc. and planned construction of a solid waste collection and disposal facility at Prudhoe Bay. The refuse will be collected through a system of dumpster-type containers and a fleet of modern, specially designed trucks. His business required a lot of traveling leaving no time for himself. He decided to get a hobby that he would enjoy spending time with. He discovered a passion for a ham radio communications which he made friends all over the world. He was an avid ham radio operator and when he heard that the LDS church is big on emergency preparedness, he helped organized an Emergency Preparedness Communications program in the church in Issaquah, Washington. When he moved to Florida, he also started organizing an emergency communications program for the church in Deland.