This was the first I had heard of this; from the ARRL Newsletter:

* Merle B. Parten, K6DC, SK: Prominent West Coast DXer Merle Parten, K6DC, of Santa Barbara, California, died August 2. He was 89. An ARRL and DXCC Honor Roll member with 383 entities, Parten once was an amplifier design engineer at Eimac. He won a QST Cover Plaque Award for his article "Custom Design and Construction Techniques for Linear Amplifiers," which appeared in the September 1971 issue of QST. He also was a member of the A-1 Operator Club.