William Arthur Kuning

KUNING WILLIAM ARTHUR KUNING "Bill" May 20, 1920 Chicago, IL November 17, 2007 Easton, MD William Arthur (Bill) Kuning, a retired electronics technician and lifelong amateur radio operator, died of complications from a stroke on November 17 at The Memorial Hospital at Easton, MD. He was 87. The son of Lillian and William F. Kuning, he grew up in the Morgan Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL. An early interest in amateur radio - he received his first broadcast license while still in high school - led to the position of radio operator on Army weather observation aircraft during World War II. Upon leaving the military in 1946, he began a three-decade career in the instrumentation branch of the National Weather Service, specializing in communications systems for remote, unattended weather sensors located on mountains, ocean buoys and carried aloft by high-altitude balloons. His work took him across the U.S. and as far as West Africa. In 1944, he married the former Doris Arlene Brownbridge of West Orange, NJ. In 1951, they built a home in Colesville, MD and raised four children, several dogs, chickens and tomatoes. A fifty-foot tall former windmill tower held his radio antennas and, each Christmas, a five-foot-wide illuminated star visible to the surrounding neighborhoods. In recent years it was revealed that, in the 1960's, he had been designated a radio operator for the top-secret U.S. Government Relocation Facility, an underground refuge for top officials in the event of nuclear attack. Shortly after retirement in the late 1970's, Mr. and Mrs. Kuning purchased several acres at LeCompte Bay on the south shore of the Choptank River, west of Cambridge, MD. They built a new home and moved there in 1983. He continued his amateur radio hobby, including active participation in the Quarter Century Wireless Association whose members had been licensed “hams” for at least 25 years. Mr. Kuning recently passed the 70-year mark of licensed amateur radio operation, most recently under the call sign W3BY. Since his move to the Eastern Shore, he was an active member of the Cambridge Seventh-day Adventist Church. Mr. Kuning is survived by a brother, Howard Kuning of Stevensville, MT; two sons, Charles R. (Randy) Kuning of Baltimore, MD and Brian S. Kuning (Susan) of Columbia, MD; two daughters, Carolyn R. Kuning of Greenville, TN and Amy L. Donley (Jim) of Silver Spring, MD; grandchildren, Bill Kuning, Grant Kuning, Scott and Sarah Donley. He also leaves his dogs, Bizzy and Val. His wife Doris died in 1993. Funeral service will be held on Friday, November 23, 2007, 2 p.m. at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church near Cambridge. A visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the American Diabetes Association 114 Baptist Street, Salisbury, MD 21802 or the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904. Arrangements are in the care of the Thomas Funeral Home, Cambridge, MD.