Bertha Watson Memorial Scholarship

EARS members sponsor the Bertha Watson Memorial Scholarship.  The scholarship is given in the spring to an aspiring UCO Freshman attending full-time the next fall.  $500 is provided by the generosity of the EARS Club and is matched by the UCO Foundation for a total of $1,000.  Applications for the 2008 scholarship will be accepted until March 31, 2008.  The application form is located here.

Bertha Watson's family settled near Edmond in Indian Territory before the great land rush.  She was born in Hartshorne, OK.  She graduated from Hartshorne High School in 1935 and attended Southeastern College in Durant, OK.

She met Allen Watson W5ERY in 1935 while he was attending Eastern Oklahoma College in Wilburton, OK.  They were married in Durant, OK in 1936.  They had three daughters and one son, John Watson, III WN5ZNU.  Besides Amateur Radio Bertha had other hobbies.  She was an accomplished seamstress, sewing clothes for her three daughters.  She mastered other domesticated skills such as crocheting and knitting, making doilies, afghans, and sweaters.  She played the piano for school dances and was an accomplished typist.

In 1940 at the Federal Communications Commission Examination in Oklahoma City, the examiner asked her to demonstrate the proper way to send Morse Code with a hand-key to the other thirty taking the test for a class "B" license.  When she received her license in 1941, she became the second woman in the state of Oklahoma to receive an Amateur Radio license.  She took great pride in contacting foreign countries (DX) and had contacted over 200 countries for which she received a DXCC Certificate.  She received an ARRL award for helping families after an earthquake in Alaska on March 27, 1959.  She was a Charter member of the TYLRUN (Texas Young Lady Round Up Net) and at that time was the only member that held all the Club's offices.  She was active in the YL International Sideband Organization.  Bertha had a "Hunters Club" certificate for obtaining 25 different Amateur certificates.

She was one of ten Charter members who established the Edmond Amateur Radio Society on August 4, 1959.  She served as EARS President from 1969-70 and 1971-72.  In 1988 a $500 scholarship was established in her name.  A $1,000 Bertha Watson Memorial Scholarship (including the UCO Foundation matching fund) was established in 1998.

The Edmond Amateur Radio Society is located at 28 E. Main Street, Edmond Downtown Community Center, Room 219.  Mailing address is EARS, PO Box 48, Edmond, OK 73083.  Repeaters: 147.135+, 443.425+, and Echolink on 443.150+ with 79.7 Hz PL tone.  Station phone 359-4386.  Webmaster e-mail:K5EOK@arrl.net. The Edmond Amateur Radio Society, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.  Copyright EARS 2008.