It's likely that the North Shore Emergency Association, a Chicago area GMRS public service group, would not have taken shape in the way it did had it not been for Randy Knowles. A practicing attorney, Randy was also an enthusiastic proponent of GMRS and is said to have held the country's oldest GMRS callsign KAA8142. As a pro-active member of the radio community, he was among those who founded the emergency association in Chicago's north suburbs, where he also established one of the first GMRS repeater systems.

Randy died on the 21st of August as a result of complications from diabetes.

His influence was felt far beyond his home city, however. His name was well-known in Washington, D.C., where he often made pleadings to the US Federal Communications Commission, arguing that the operation of GMRS be allowed to thrive for use by families and communities, despite rising pressures by business interests seeking to establish their own operations on that part of the UHF spectrum. He also fought successfully to keep GMRS licenses affordable.

Randy helped shape the future of GMRS from 1976-78, when he served as a task chairman of the congressionally chartered Personal Use Radio Advisory Committee to FCC. His commitment to radio also extended to his past volunteer service as a police and fire dispatcher and a former radio communications chairman of the North Region Mid America Red Cross Disaster Service.

Randy was 79.