We are very sad about long time attendee of the conference, James “Rusty” Hevelin passing away yesterday. Rusty could always be found in the company of Joe and Gay Haldeman.
He had been an active member of the science fiction community since the 1930s, publishing his own fanzines such as H-1661, as well as contributing to many others. He had been Fan Guest of Honor and Toastmaster more science fiction conventions than anyone can count. He was the Fan Guest of Honor at the 1981 Worldcon, Denvention Two (he had attended Denvention One in 1941). Hevelin was the 1986 recipient of the Big Heart Award for service to the science fiction community. He was well known as a collector of science fiction materials, and was the recipient of First Fandom‘s 2003 Sam Moskowitz Archive Award for excellence in science fiction collecting. He was one of the founders of PulpCon (now PulpFest), an annual convention dedicated to pulp magazines. In addition to all of his contributions to the industry, he was also a veteran of World War II who served as a Marine in the South Pacific.
We will miss him at the conference.