Charles “Chuck” Dorian, W3JPT, of Issaquah, Washington, died June 20. He was 92. Dorian had a long and distinguished history of support to Amateur Radio and the Amateur-Satellite Service. A veteran member of the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC), Dorian served on the US Amateur Radio FCC Advisory Committee for World Administrative Radio Conference 1979 (WARC-79), in which Amateur Radio gained the so-called “WARC bands” — 30, 17, and 12 meters. His primary focus, however, was the Amateur-Satellite Service. Dorian and AMSAT’s Perry Klein, W3PK, developed the US Amateur-Satellite positions for WARC-79, and Dorian was on the US delegation to the international conference. He also served as a member of the ARRL Long-Range Planning Committee in the 1970s.

A Massachusetts native, Dorian was first licensed in 1939 as W1LXO. He graduated from the US Coast Guard Academy with a BS in engineering. He subsequently completed post-graduate work in communications at the US Naval Academy. Dorian spent 30 years in the US Coast Guard in various communication roles, rising to the rank of captain. During World War II, he served on vessels in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Great Lakes, and in the Pacific. While serving aboard the USCGC Northland on Greenland Patrol in 1942, he was involved in the rescue of 31 pilots and crewmen from B-17s, P-38s, and a Canadian Hudson bomber. During his assignment on board the USS Callaway, an Attack Transport, he participated in five initial invasion landings including the Marianas, the Philippines and Iwo Jima. Dorian served from 1964 until 1967 as Chief of Coast Guard Communications, retiring in 1972 as Deputy Director of the Office of Telecommunications for the US Department of Transportation.

According to his Seattle Times obituary, Dorian received the US Armed Forces Legion of Merit in 1967 for exceptional meritorious achievement to improve maritime safety via radiocommunications, stressing the benefits of satellites dedicated to maritime emergencies.

After retiring from the DOT, he worked for the Communications Satellite Corporation as Director of International Relations. In that role, he dealt with mobile satellite communications. Over a period of 20 years, he served on US Department of State delegations to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conferences in Geneva, and was considered one of the “fathers” of the maritime satellite communication system now in use.

Dorian was a past member of the AMSAT Board of Directors and served as the Board’s secretary. He was a past president of the Washington, DC, Chapter of QCWA and of the Foundation for Amateur Radio. For 8 years, he served as the ARRL’s representative and consultant in Washington.

Dorian was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Donations in his memory may be made to the Washington Talking Books Library.