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Should you encounter any problems
with this Web
Page please email: April 1989 saw the death in the
same week of two ASTRA members in good standing. The first
was Leading Aircraft Electrical Mechanic David Proffitt, RN,
who had been a member since 1972. Nobody who met David Proffitt
would readily forget him. His love of a good argument was
matched only by his love of a good pint, and his idea of
heaven combined both. I first met him through the folk scene
and he joined ASTRA almost immediately, taking an active
part in everything that was happening except when the Navy
was so inconsiderate as to station him elsewhere. Chapter 5
of "Man and the Stars" records a much toned-down version of
his famous argument with Brian Gardiner, of the British
Antarctic Survey, over whether scientists could be trusted
to look after themselves in hostile territory, and it's to
be regretted that the publishers of "New Worlds for Old"
deleted his contributed Appendix, 'A Climber's Guide to the
Solar System' (printed by Chris O'Kane as a tribute to him
in Spacereport, November 1989). David was a prime mover in the
ASTRA coach trip to Achnashellach Hostel for Hogmanay 1974,
and in the mid-1970's he was a key member of the Satellite
Tracking Station Technical Committee. We were within two
weeks of commissioning it when the Navy posted him away and
simultaneously British Steel did the same with Bob Cochrane,
leaving Oscar to try to rebuild and complete it on his own.
If Dave hadn't been gone as well, maybe it would still have
come to pass. In the late 1970's Paul Benson,
Dave and I struck a deal to meet the rising cost of keeping
the Hamilton rooms for the society. David's monthly
contribution was as large as Paul's and mine combined; he
kept up when we had to drop out, and for two more years
after we lost the rooms, before he had to stop when he took
out a mortgage on a house in Portsmouth. At that point we
agreed that he had paid his ASTRA subscription in
perpetuity. In the meantime, in 1980 a
Publications Committee had been formed of David, Oscar
Schwiglhofer, Ian Chalmers and Jean Coles. David set up an
elaborate deal whereby the sacrifice of my typewriter and a
cash investment by himself, Oscar and me secured a
long-carriage typewriter, for cutting Gestetner skins, and a
Gestetner machine in excellent condition. As a further
donation David paid for commercially printed covers for
Spacereport, with blanks left for dates and issue numbers.
These outlasted the committee and that run of Spacereport,
and we still have some of them left. In 1982 David had been about to
leave the Navy after 20 years, with his future plans drawn
up in detail, when the Falklands War broke out and he was
required to re-enlist for five years more. When he left the
Navy finally, he became a partner in a building firm, which
was not a success. He was on the way out of that problem,
and in line to get engaged, when he died of a heart attack
the following April. ASTRA was represented at the funeral by
John Braithwaite and I did the same for his memorial concert
- my report on it appeared in the folk Broadsheet, and
afterwards I had the privilege of guiding his family to the
former Glen Cottage Hostel in Torridon, Wester Ross, where
he had asked for his ashes to be scattered on the lower
slopes of the Liathach Ridge. Suffice it to say that if this
was a personal memoir, rather than an ASTRA one, there's a
great deal more I could add. STEVEN
PROSTERMAN
BOB
BROWN
ASTRA Home Page | Members Home Page | Members obituaries
Website Author: Nick Portwin (portwin@easynet.co.uk)
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Date Last Modified: 31 07 1999