SFOHA regretfully acknowledges the passing of our president,
Lloyd Biggle Jr., on September 12, 2002. Please take a moment to
read these words about Lloyd, who was a wonderful person to know and work with.
Dr. Lloyd Biggle, Jr., Ph. D., musician, author, and
internationally known oral historian died September 12, 2002, after a
twenty-year battle with leukemia and cancer.
He was born April 17, 1923 in Waterloo, Iowa. During WWII he served as
Communications Sergeant in a rifle company of the 102nd Infantry
Division,
and was wounded in action, twice. He received a shrapnel wound in his
leg, near the Elbe River at the end of the war, which left him disabled
for life.
After the war, Dr. Biggle resumed his education. He received an
A.B. Degree with High Distinction from Wayne State University, Detroit,
Michigan, and M.M. and Ph. D. Degrees from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Biggle taught at the University of Michigan and at Eastern Michigan
University in the 1950's. He began writing professionally in 1955, and
became a full-time writer with the publication of his novel, All the
Colors of Darkness, in 1963, a profession that he followed until his
death. Both Dr. Biggle's science fiction and mystery stories have
received international acclaim. He was celebrated in science fiction
circles as the author who introduced aesthetics into a literature known
for its scientific and technological complications. His stories
frequently used musical and artistic themes. Such notables as
songwriter
Jimmy Webb and novelist Orson Scott Card have written of the tremendous
impact that his early story, The Tunesmith had on them in their youths.
It literally changed the course of their lives. The Tunesmith was
recently chosen for an anthology of stories to be entitled, Masterpiece:
The Century's Best Science Fiction. Among his enduring science fiction
creations were the Interplanetary Relations Bureau and the Cultural
Survey, both featured in novels and magazine stories.
In the mystery field, his Grandfather Rastin stories appeared for
many years in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He loved writing
historical fiction set in late Victorian and Edwardian England. He
began
the new Sherlock Holmes novels, The Quallsford Inheritance and The
Glendower Conspiracy, which were researched on long visits to England.
These were followed by a series of stories featured in Alfred
Hitchcock's
Mystery Magazine starring his Victorian sleuth, Lady Sara Varnley. He
also wrote the Pletcher and Lambert mystery novels.
He published two-dozen books as well as magazine stories and
articles beyond count. His most recent novel was The Chronocide
Mission.
He was writing almost to the moment of his death. "I can write them
faster than the magazines can publish them," he once said, with the
result
that even though his writing has been stilled, his publications will
continue until his backlog of stories is exhausted.
Dr. Biggle was the founding Secretary Treasurer of Science
Fiction
Writers of America and served as Chairman of its trustees for many
years.
In the 1970's, he founded the Science Fiction Oral History Association,
which built archives containing hundreds of cassette tapes of science
fiction notables making speeches and discussing aspects of their craft.
He numbered many of these science fiction notables among his friends,
and
his article in the July/August 2002 Analog Magazine," Isaac Asimov
Remembered," was based in part on his personal recollections of that
towering celebrity.
He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled
American Veterans, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
Dr. Biggle is survived by his wife of 55 years, Hedwig
(Janiszewski) Biggle, daughter Donna Emerson of Caro, Michigan, son
Kenneth Biggle and devoted daughter-in-law Deanna Biggle, of Adrian,
Michigan. His family will cherish many memories, including the special
vacations he planned for them to enjoy together. He was an example for
his family on how to live each day with courage and hope. Dr. Biggle is
also survived by his sister, Donna Otteson, of Cedar Falls, Iowa,
sister-in-law Helene Hirvela of St. Petersburg, Florida and dear family
friends Doris Maleski and Harry Maleski, Jr. of Willis, Michigan.
Cremation has taken place. Friends may visit the family,
September
15th, from 2pm to 8pm at the Janowiak Funeral home, 320 N. Washington
St., Ypsilanti, Michigan.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Leukemia
and
Lymphoma Society of White Plains, NY, or Arbor Hospice, of Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
THE APPEAL
If I have given you delight
By aught that I have done
Let me lie quiet in the night
Which shall be yours anon.
And for the little, little span
The dead are borne in mind
Seek not to question than
The books I leave behind.
--Rudyard Kipling
(Suggested by Poul Anderson)
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