Ken Rand
It is with a sad, sad heart that I must announce that writer Ken Rand passed away earlier tonight, at about 5 pm, after a long battle with a rare, incurable disease. A number of years ago, 2 weeks before the last Norwescon Ken attended, he told me the news of his terminal illness and said it might be two weeks and he'd miss Norwescon, or it might be 2 years. Typical Ken Rand fashion, it was, I think, more than 4 years.
I announced at Talebones Live! at Norwescon that Ken was pulling the plug on all the things that were keeping him alive, due to his decreasing quality of life. He had all his family around him and it was time. He figured a few days after he did that, he would be gone. Again, it was a week and a half. That man loved life, was so full of life, and gave so much of his life to others....it's not surprising. Instead of a moment of silence at TB Live, I told everyone he deserved a standing ovation. The applause went on for over a minute, I think. Thanks to everyone who kept their end of the agreement, as per his wishes, and didn't call or email him during that time.
Ken's son, Mike called me to let me know. I'm Ken's literary executor, so there are things to be done as time goes on. Mike is in the process of creating a new webpage for his dad. His old webpage is still up. There will be more information forthcoming. I'm not on Facebook, or MySpace, or Twitter, and so on, so do pass along the word to those communities as well. I have already contacted Locus. I'm not in much of the right state of mind to write more personal memories about him at the moment, but I will. Forgive me.
The SF world -- the world -- has lost one of the finest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
I announced at Talebones Live! at Norwescon that Ken was pulling the plug on all the things that were keeping him alive, due to his decreasing quality of life. He had all his family around him and it was time. He figured a few days after he did that, he would be gone. Again, it was a week and a half. That man loved life, was so full of life, and gave so much of his life to others....it's not surprising. Instead of a moment of silence at TB Live, I told everyone he deserved a standing ovation. The applause went on for over a minute, I think. Thanks to everyone who kept their end of the agreement, as per his wishes, and didn't call or email him during that time.
Ken's son, Mike called me to let me know. I'm Ken's literary executor, so there are things to be done as time goes on. Mike is in the process of creating a new webpage for his dad. His old webpage is still up. There will be more information forthcoming. I'm not on Facebook, or MySpace, or Twitter, and so on, so do pass along the word to those communities as well. I have already contacted Locus. I'm not in much of the right state of mind to write more personal memories about him at the moment, but I will. Forgive me.
The SF world -- the world -- has lost one of the finest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.