Joybubbles - S.K.

He was blind, and at one time in his life, was a famed telephone hacker who later devoted his life to bringing youth back to the world. And most of all he was a ham radio operator with only one name.

And now, the man known only as Joybubbles and the call letters WB0RPA has become a silent key

Joybubbles was only 58 when he died on August 8th in Minneapolis. Up until 1991 he had two names like the rest of. us. He was Joe Engressia and described in the media as a blind genius with perfect pitch. The first person who accidentally found he could make free phone calls by whistling tones.

Because of this, he went on to play a pivotal role in the 1970's subculture known as "phone phreaks." The folks who were forerunners of today’s computer hackers. And like some of them, Joybubbles ran afoul of the law. News accounts of his suspension from college in 1968 and conviction for phone violations in 1971 he made him a nerve center of the Phone Phreak movement.

Well before the mid-1970's Joybubbles had stopped his phone Phreaking activities. By then he was already a legend, having phoned around the world, talking into one phone and listening to himself on another.

But WB0RPA never lost his love of telephones. One news report said that he regularly reported telephone security problems that he discovered to telephone service providers. He had become one of the good guys as far as the phone companies were concerned.

So why only one name? According to his friend and estate executor Stevem Gibb, Joybubbles felt that being abused at a school for the blind and being pushed by his mother to live up to his 172 I.Q. had robbed him of childhood. So in 1988 he decided to go back ion time and remain forever at age 5.

To do this Joe Engressia amassed piles of toys, Jacyouth magazines and imaginary friends. Then he took the name Joybubbles which he said made people smile. And he spent the rest of his life doing just that.

His second life as a perennial youngster included becoming a minister in his own Church of Eternal Childhood and collecting tapes of every “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood” episode. He also was an active member of the Minneapolis children's community, giving readings at the local library and setting up phone calls to terminally ill children around the world. He also was a regular contributor to the Bulletin Board section of the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper.

In the world of Amateur Radio, Joybubbles was one of our unseen supporters. He Ran a low profile set of phone machines in the Minneapolis area that featured both Amateur Radio Newsline and The Rain Report. This as a part of his own service of audio mailboxes available to those in need in the Minneapolis area.

Joybubbles is survived by his mother, Esther Engressia, and his sister, Toni, both of Homestead, Fla. The cause of death has not yet been announced.

Source: ARNewsline, KC0DGY