Amateur radio is full of names used as shorthand — the Maxim in W1AW's story, the Vail in NARA's youth CW award, the callsign on a club's QSL card. This section explains who they were. It leaves out the people who are famous only inside the hobby: the club president who has run the same net for thirty years, the operator who taught half a county to copy code. If your club has one, write them up here — anyone with a NARA account can edit, and every change is recorded.
Related topics: amateur radio history for the events these people shaped, organizations for the bodies they founded, and NARA awards for the 20-20 Young Keyers Award named after Alfred Vail.