Mr. Harvey

His QSL card

The radio shack of W1RF

3 element tribander

Stan Harle, G3MEA kindly sent me these very rare and nice pictures of Mr. Harvey. He had regular skeds with him during several years and also meet him personally when he visited England. The radio shack picture by courtesy of the XYL of late G2FNS. Have a look at Stan’s page for more nice pictures!

I got visited in the summer of 2001 by Helen Proulx Harvey’s son Kamuran Tepedelen who was in Sweden on vacation, and he had some pictures of Mr. Harvey I was able to scan. These pictures found at the Family page.

Picture from the Harvey-Wells Picture Tour catalogue 1954 and the Personnel & Facilities manual 1957..

Clifford Akers Harvey W1RF was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 1 March 1908. He faded away on 26 March, 1987 at the age of 79.

After completing high school, he did a year of prep school, and then attended MIT in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1931 he graduated with a degree in Radio Engineering at MIT as it was called in those days. (source: Helen Proulx Harvey)

Mr. Harvey lived with his own family at 18 Orchard Road, Brookline, Massachusetts, until he married Helen Elizabeth (Betty) Sherrill in 1933.  They lived on Beacon Street, Brookline, until sometime before Christmas 1939 when they moved to Southbridge, Mass.

This is a story I found at Dick Whitneys site written by the Mr. Harveys son Cliff S. about the Harvey-Wells Co in Southbridge, Mass. and the flooding of 1955!

(Cliff S. Harvey writes) We were on vacation at Moosehead Lake in Maine when Hurricane Diane hit in, I believe, 1955, and Dad came home early to assess the damage to our home and to his business, Harvey-Wells Electronics in Southbridge. Although our home was not damaged, the rising water in the river next to Dad's business flooded the entire inventory, destroying it. They had been installing radio gear in several Army trucks at the time, and those trucks were completely swept away by the flood waters, never to be found even to this day. Shortly after that, the business was sold to a company called Bay Pathe, and Dad went to work for them as a consultant. Bay Pathe sold off the division he was working in to Whitin Machine Co. in Whitinsville, MA., and he served as a consultant to them until 1971, when they let him go. It was at this time he retired to his cellar workshop and his ham radio full time.

Pictures copyright (C) Dick Whitney

The Harvey-Wells factory building at Southbridge, Mass.

Ad from 1955 about the flooding

(Helen Proulx Harvey writes) I had always thought that Harvey-Wells didn't recover after the flood that washed through it. That was from Hurricane Diane in August of 1955. The insurance company wouldn't cover the damage because it was an "act of God". I remember Dad being bitter about that." Harvey-Wells made a lot of piezoelectric quartz crystals, and they worked on a lot of government contracts. There was one contract that the government refused to pay for after taking delivery about the same time as the flood. Harvey-Wells sued the government for payment, but the suit took so long, that Dad was actually working for the Whiting Industries by the time the case was decided in Harvey-Wells' favor. I think Dad may have been kept on by those two companies because he was the one who had the knowledge and information about the contract and he was the one who went to Washington from time to time to testify. The initial lack of payment by the government might have been another factor in the demise of H-W. Companies need cash to exist, and Harvey-Wells employed a lot of people.