Alan Scott Douglas

Alan started people into the world of early broadcasting and early wireless.I can only think of my first horn speaker that I bought at an auction in 1977. My father was not impressed, but now I can look at over 30, and many 1920's radios.His books led to a historian's view of this great hobby. He made my life more fulfilling.
Rest easy, Alan, and I hope I will go the same way.

At Swarthmore College, I worked with Alan to revive WSRN, our carrier current AM station. He had a unique intensity about technical matters and was a joy to know.

So lucky to have lived so close to Alan. Met him when I began collecting radios in 1973. Whenever I ran into a radio problem, I would call him to seek his knowledge.....and his reply would be: "I'll be here..." I can't believe he's gone.
Dave Crocker, (Mashpee, MA)

I knew Alan from years of attending the Antique Wireless Association conferences in New York. He was a true gentlemen and an unlimited source of knowledge on antique wireless and related historical subjects.I was pleased to have him take photographs of some of my old radios for use in his series of books. And who can forget his old Chevrolet car and pick-up truck? He had a true sense of history and will not be forgotten.

I will miss my old friend for as long as I live. Our traveling to many radio shows and many good memories of a true friend!!

Rich Elskamp

We met Alan at the 1975 AWA Conference and were immediately aware of his vast knowledge of the history of wireless. He proved to be a great friend, and knowledgeable historian. He will be missed by all radio collectors for his quick wit & superb memory on all subjects.
Jim & Felicia Kreuzer

I have only just heard of Alan's passing. I never met him in person, but we communicated by email over the years. Alan helped me with my books and was an unselfish source of material. A gentle man and a true gentleman.

As a fellow radio historian, I was stunned and saddened to learn of Alan's passing. Our friendship began as members of the Antique Wireless Association in the early 1970s. Alan contributed much valuable information and documentation about the early days of broadcasting. He will be missed by all who knew him, but his knowledge will live forever in his books and publications.

I am saddened at the passing Alan. I learned of it through the Reed Organ Soc. newsletter today 2/27/16

I got acquainted with Alan back in the 70s and visited is wonderful collection at his home. He also visited me onetime at my home in Laconia, NH to see and hear my Estey pipe organ as well as doing work on an early Atwater-Kent radio I have.

Larry Leonard, Laconia, NH

I just found out that Alan had passed tonight when I called to ask him a radio question and got his brother. Alan was a man of great knowledge and would always take time to help a fellow radio person. He will be missed in the radio and electronics community.. Rest in peace, Alan. N1ACK Russ

Alan was a wonderful, generous and unassuming friend and neighbor. He had a wealth of knowledge of local history and taught us a lot about our "Barlowtown" neighborhood in Pocasset. His contributions to our local organizations such as the stone wall, Charles Morgan ship model, and parlor organ restorations at the Briggs McDermott House in Bourne and the piano restoration at the Pocasset Community Club will be remembered and appreciated for years to come. He is gone too soon and we will miss him dearly.

I wish to convey deepest sympathies and condolences for the family of Mr. Douglas. I knew him from the forum antiqueradios.com. He was a wealth of information that can never be replaced. He will be missed not only for that, but his outstanding personal traits. Few men will achieve the status in the eyes of their peers that Alan did. We will miss him.

I've known Alan since the mid 1970s when he and John Wolkonowicz would sleep in my barn in Canandaigua during the annual AWA meets. We were all a lot younger then.
I am shocked and saddened. What a horrid loss to all of us.
Alan, you will be sorely missed.
Mark Kaplan Prescott AZ

Honor to have known you Alan-You will be missed but not forgotten . RIP my friend

Alan was silent and ran deep. There was no substitute for his expertise and knowledge when it came to electronics and mechanical musical instruments. Now - Alan - who will help me with my Aeolian Francis 1st Orchestrelle ?

My condolences and best thoughts to the family.

Robert A. Sanborn South Royalton, Vermont

I never met Alan, but as a member of the Antique Radio Forum, I had the opportunity to get to know him indirectly. Obviously, a brilliant man with many talents. My sympathy to the family

First and foremost I wish to express my deepest sympathies to Alan's family for their loss.
Alan has single handedly taken on a number of projects related to local history. His foresight and skills will benefit our community for generations to come.
During the relatively short time I have known Alan I have found him to be an exceptional motivating and true human being. I feel very fortunate to have known him

Alan enjoyed his 2 years of retirement, feeling fulfilled with his work on the wall at the Briggs Mc Dermott Historical house in Bourne, restoring their organ and redoing the piano for the PVA. Lifting 800 # rocks with the " machine " he made, providing the neighborhood with vegetables,and becoming a part of the social fabric of Barlows Landing Rd.made him very happy. He regularly fixed things for me,( often without me even knowing he had done them, until many days later). I am sorry for your loss, dear family and our neighborhood will certainly miss him. He was a rare and wonderful human being.. Dot Erickson

Rest in peace Alan. You will be missed by many, many people. Some of us, you never met, but we will remember you for your kindness and your willingness to share your vast knowledge.

Alan was an amazing guy. A true genius and a highly skilled craftsman. I was privileged to work with Alan for 21 years at Benthos. I was also privileged to visit his incredible museum. His 3 volume history of radio is perhaps the best history of radio ever written.

Rest in Peace Mr. Douglas. Thanks for sharing your knowledge about Pocasset history with us. Will miss our chats about old houses.

I Knew Alan through nearc I will miss my friend
my sincere condolences to the famnily

Alan Thank You for the LOVE you have bestowed upon ALL you encountered.
You are a GIANT among the Human Race
Bob Timms

We will miss our friend Alan who brought us much happiness and inspiration whether it was stories about local history, gardening tips or stone walls. He quietly labored to restore our stone wall which now serves as source of meditation and peace. Our prayers go out to his family as they remember and celebrate his life.

I must have met Alan about 20 years ago when I was starting a course on the history of radio at U Mass Lowell. I naturally bought his 3 volume opus on radio manufacturers of the 1920's. I later saw him at either the Museum of Wireless in East Greenwich RI or at a radio collectors meet in Westford MA. I asked him to sign the books -- which he did-- and he said "now they're worth less, someone has written in them." This was characteristic of his modest self deprecating humor.

Alan knew I had an interest in Browning Drake receivers . Browning and Drake had developed their ideas at Cruft Lab in the 1920's where I once had an office as a grad student about 40 years later . I had learned about them from Alan's treatise. He kindly gave me a Browning Drake receiver that had once belonged to his grandfather. It was of course in working order but he helped me repair yet another that I picked up in a second hand store in Roxbury, MA. His knowledge of old radios was astounding and he for example could tell you from memory the value of a resistor used in some part of a 20's era Radiola receiver.

My wife and I visited Alan at his home and he demonstrated an organ he had acquired and restored . We met his parents who were as kind and generous as he was. They were all Quakers and Alan was a graduate of a Friends college, Swarthmore, where he had studied electrical engineering. The whole family shared in the liberal, humanitarian values of the Society of Friends.

Alan was so full of life, energy and interests that I cannot really assimilate his being gone.

A. David Wunsch, Belmont MA

I cannot write anything that would pay a proper tribute to a guy so well respected. The entries in this journal speak volumes as to Alan and the impact he had on people. I have mentioned to folks that you meet so many truly fine people in the radio hobby and Alan was the prime example. Lower the antenna to half staff.
May his memory spur all of us on our mission to preserve and restore.

Bless his soul.

I knew Alan through the radio history field, and found that we had many interests and opinions in common. Over time, I grew to realise that there was far more to him.

Alan was highly reserved, yet extraordinarily friendly, thoughtful, and generous. He had strong views and could express them without inciting conflict or rancour; his serene equanimity seemed to be utterly unshakeable. He was a gentle soul, yet there was nothing meek or weak about him. He was highly intelligent and possessed wide-ranging talents and knowledge, yet never showed off or let others feel inferior.

He had a long, successful career in engineering; he was a top radio historian, and assembled a matchless library; he collected and restored radio equipment and automatic musical instruments; he re-built stone walls. In all of this, and more, he was supremely organised and productive.

Balance. Everything about Alan was in perfect balance. He made exactly the right life for himself; how cruel of fate to cut it so short!

I keenly wish I could have got to know Alan better; I had always assumed there would be plenty of time ahead. Yet I can still say that he was the finest gentleman, in the true and complete meaning of the word, that I have ever known. I shall miss him.

Time is short here as we know it but the memories last for ever.
RIP
White Mountain Amateur Radio Club
Mt. Washington Observatory Amateur Radio Club
KB1EZJ

Gods bless and cherish Alan's soul - he is sorely missed!Maryann delaney

Alan will be sorley missed. I bet he is fixing radios up there in heaven and helping others as he did down here.
Dennis Banker

Alan was a great person. He always had time to answer my questions on old radios and radio history.
He will be missed.
My condolences tot he family.
Frank B. ARF member

If I could live to do 10% of what Alan did for the Antique Radio Community, I'll have done well.
Bruce Phillips
President New England Antique Radio Club

Alan was a kind, quiet, hard working man, we were lucky to know him as our neighbor. Not a day went by that he wasn't working in the garden, in his yard, or around the house. We were often blessed with generous gifts from his garden. He will be missed dearly.

My sincere condolences to family, friends, and the radio community.

Thank you for your wonderful contribution to vintage radio. Roger (Ontario, Canada.)

I first met Alan at his neighbor's house where he was always accepted as a family member and he embraced their caring with tenderness and graciousness. It was the little things he did that stand out in my mind....watering Sean's (the grandson) garden; fresh carrots and endless tomatoes for the entire family; filling the bird bath on a regular basis; planting grass along the new driveway; and of course, constructing his endless and magnificent stone walls. He had a way of giving, completely without being asked, that was so quiet and loving it was easy for one to almost miss his actions. He was a great friend for his neighbors, Kim,whom he always treated as family and with a special friendship, Chris, Alex, Sean and "Otis". He continually gave them solace in an amazing, unselfish, and caring manner that is seldom seen in today's world. And he graciously accepted their kindness with a quiet warmth.
He will be greatly missed, a rare and special man of many talents and an open heart.

May God bless you and your family in this time of sorrow.

Alan was a kind and generous man, who gave freely of his time and expertise to the men of radio. He touched the lives of many, and made this world a better place.
Please accept my condolences.

Greg Bell.
Bryansford Village. Ireland.

Addendum to my eulogy- my memory failed me in that Alan of course moved to the house I saw in 1955. Still that was a long time.

Alan was always willing to help with antique radio questions. He would send parts never asking for anything in return. Alan never had a bad work for anyone. He will be missed.

Alan was a class act; he was a real asset to the antique radio community, and to the radio forum. Although I never got to meet him in person, he helped me out on several occasions.My condolences to the family.

Did I ever meet Alan? No, not in person. But the chatty, informed, engaged, encouraging emails he would send whenever I had a question made me feel as if he was a friend. I know I am among many, many others who felt the same. It is a loss to us all, whether involved in activities he shared or not, when someone like Alan passes from the scene.

During his time with the Antique Radio Forums, he contributed over 25000 messages. Every one is pleasant, informative, and worth re-reading. I don't know if I can be ten percent as good, but I'll surely try. Thanks for the example, Alan. Godspeed.

Alan was the finest person I ever met in the antique radio community. Not only full of information but willing to share as well. He will be missed by all of us.

Always willing to help. One of a kind who will be missed dearly by many. My sincere condolences to the family.

We never met in person, but I corresponded with Alan many times over the years. He was a true gentleman and I will always have the highest respect for him. He helped me out of many tough situations with a radio and once with an antique piano. He is going to be missed by all in the antique radio community, as his knowledge and willingness to help others cannot be matched.

Alan was a true gentleman and a scholar. I have never met anyone who has touched so many in such a positive way. He and his knowledge will be sadly missed.

May the good earth be soft under you
When you rest upon it,
May it rest easy over you when,
At the last, you lay out under it,
And may it rest so lightly over you
That your soul may be out
From under it quickly, and up, and off,
And be on its way to God.

I would probably not be in business today were it not for Alan's help back when I was a 15 year old kid seeking information about a 1929 Atwater-Kent radio. He answered every letter and sent me in all the right directions. We only met a few times but each time was a special event for me.

Alan was a true gentleman and a good friend for 47 years. We shared many good times at antique radio gatherings over the years. He will be missed.

This is a great loss for the radio collecting community, Alan was a historian of the first order and was never too busy to help a fellow collector out. He is now at rest conversing with Hertz, Marconi & DeForest. He was a true gentleman that can never be replaced.... he will be missed.

Alan Scott Douglas, a memorial

&*&*&*&

On Sunday November 15th a mentor of mine Alan Douglas died peacefully in the house he was born in on the couch watching TV. I first met him through my antique radio hobby as Alan was probably THE recognized authority on American radio equipment of the 1920s having literally written two collector/historian guides on the subject. Through an internet forum Alan offered me a 1947 Philco TV he had acquired cheaply and I stopped by in 1999 on the way to visit friends on Martha's Vineyard.

Alan grew up on the inner arm of Cape Cod on Buzzard's Bay which today resembles suburbia. When he was born it was quite rural and he lived his whole life in the white wood framed house I visited. I've always envied people with so much stability and connection to a place. My own Bauhaus school NYC area parents eschewed sentiment and its geegawkery and I was raised in a house of chrome and vinyl furniture like the kind you see in futuristic houses of the 1960s- Mad Men made real. We moved a lot and I was bequeathed very little but memories, no wonder. Yet Alan bought a full size player pipe organ basically at salvage value and in a year of weekends installed it in his garage. There was a big Volume knob- when you turned it the ENTIRE WALL of slats over the pipe assembly open and closed. He played a few piano rolls for me cut by well known organists of the 1920s.

Alan really looked like the brother of the guy on the Quaker Oats box. He was the epitome of the Quaker principles under which his parents raised him as well. A lifelong bachelor he had a classic ultra-pragmatic engineer's attitude towards fashion that leaned heavily on the JC Penney 1982 look. His manner was a shy New England taciturn reserve but if you got him talking he could go on forever. His day job was designing deep underwater camera equipment down in Wood's Hole, he designed cameras for the mission that found the Titanic. But in his spare time he curated the past- rebuilding a dry-laid historic stonewall near him because it was one of the last left with the knowledge to do it- or who cared to do so. Or he'd be restoring a 19th century schooner cabin to be used as a kitchen for a town community space. And he had amassed an enormous library of literature on the invention and early history of radio as well as a collection of significant equipment that spilled out into the barn and garage. Alan bought historic radios though at yard sales in the 70s and 80s when they were junk to most people. I bought a Western Electric candlestick telephone from him so cheaply I offered more. Alan smiled and said well I filled my backpack on the way home from school from a huge dumpster of these, tell you the truth..... He had an electric fan made in the 1880s. It was so old it lacked both any sort of fan guard OR insulation. At the time electricity was so terrifying no one would dream of going near it, Alan explained. And no one had any confidence in wire insulation yet. Alan as a kid hauled home junk for the curb like I did . The difference was mine ended up back on the curb within a few weeks or a month, Alan's mostly became fascinating historic treasures.

He always was generous too with his advice and knowledge, and forever sending rare parts to old radio and organ people around the world for postage or the price he paid at the yard sale in 1985, the author included. I have done well for myself as an antique radio and TV restorer but it was all built on the foundational knowledge and contagious passion Alan exuded. In fact one of my most recent cathedral radio total rebuilds owes its authentic appearance to Alan providing me we an otherwise unobtainable photo of an original finish one taken in the 1980s.

"Great leaders communicate a vision that captures the imagination and fires the hearts and minds of those around them."~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

Fiery is not an adjective I'd ever use to describe Alan Scott Douglas. Yet he inculcated in me a passion for vacuum tube era technology and history that's ongoing. More importantly he taught me how to identify collectibles early while others are still seeing junk. Alan surfed the web until recently on a 2009 computer running a tweaked version of Windows 3.0- something no one would bother to write a virus for, he pointed out- "And it loads and runs like blazes being such a tiny program." as he told me. In his memory tonight I set up a 1992 Macintosh my sister almost recycled BUT already has glimmers of collectibilty only astute eyes can see.

Thanks Alan. Sometimes the quietest voices echo the longest.

Alan was a man I instinctively respected even though I knew him only from his writings and posts on the Antique Radio Forum. It is a rare man whose character can be gleaned from his written words.

Although we never met in real life I considered Alan a friend and a very generous person who helped anyone that asked.The world is a lesser place without him.

Never met in person but was a top influence in my life. He shared his knowledge generously and with that helped shape the skills I have today. I never forgot all the help he provided and I considered him one of my main teachers.

Rest in peace Sir...your memory will live on forever...

94marconi/Ron

Alan was a great friend and visits to his home and his family were most enjoyable. I think he was a true product of his Quaker roots. Never selfish, quiet and calm and a pleasure to know. He was a true craftsman and gentleman.
Merrill Bancroft

Alan was one of the most knowledgeable and generous people that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and corresponding with.

Bon Voyage my friend, fair wind and following seas

I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to Alan's family. He was a gentleman and I will remember the all too brief time I was able to spend with him and the correspondence I had with him these past few years. He will be missed by me and many others that also knew him.

The true measure of a man's worth lies in the family and friends he leaves behind.
Alan was beloved in all of his endeavors. He will be sorely missed.

Bill Noro (Pittsburgh PA)

Although we never met in person, your generosity and help thru the years were an asset to all that you came in contact with. RIP my friend.

Your sorrows are shared by us as we lift our hearts in prayer for Alan.

+ I will not leave you comfort less: I will come to you. John 14:18 +

My condolences.

My deepest condolences to Alan's family. The antique radio collecting community lost one of it's most knowledgeable members and helpful members with his passing. Almost daily I use one of his excellent reference books as a guide. I will always treasure the little Crosley RFTA that Alan sold me for my collection. God speed my friend.

Rest in peace my friend. Thank you for all your kindness and generosity thru the years.

I first corresponded with Alan around 1970 and I think I first met him in person in my first trip to the AWA conference in Canandaigua, NY in September 1973. I would see him there just about every year and always had pleasant exchanges. I may have received the last package sent by Alan last Saturday. He was helping me on a project to build museum grade batteries used in radios of the 20's. This guy was an OUTSTANDING! contributor to preserving and, more importantly, disseminating knowledge of a technology that has forever changed humanity to a large extent. I sure wish he could have continued- on as a mentor for another good ten years..... If he meant this much to folks around the planet, I'm thinking he must be a 'too-soon-lost' for the family, my condolences...

I wish Alan's family the deepest sympathy at this untimely passing. Life is all too short and I will miss him very much.

We wish to extend our deepest sympathies at this difficult time.