The Original Musings

Gary Gygax deserves two mentions, after all

Found this one following links.

I hope he can now see the impact he made on so many people.

July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008

Early Tuesday morning, Gary Gygax, co-creator of the original D&D, passed away at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, according to Stephen Chenault, CEO of Troll Lord Games. He was 69.

Generally acknowledged as the father of the RPG, Gary was the man who inspired scores of gamers, including those of us who took it to the next level and began gaming online. If not for his vision, DragonRealms would almost certainly not exist.

In 1967, he organized a 20-person gaming meet (which would come to be known as Gen Con 0) in the basement of his home, and thus the annual Gen Con gaming convention was born, with the first official Gen Con in 1968. Gen Con is now the world’s largest annual hobby-game gathering.

He married Gail Carpenter on August 15, 1987, coincidentally the same day as his parents’ 50th anniversary. She was his second wife. With his first, he had five children, with his Gail he had two more. He also had seven grandchildren (so far).

He was in semi-retirement, having suffered a heart attack after receiving incorrect medication to prevent further strokes. (He had two, on April 1 and May 4, 2004.) He was diagnosed with an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm. Even while his health failed, gaming remained very much a part of his life. He attended the 2007 Gen Con, had plans to attend 2008′s, and he was very active on gaming forum websites.

I found this quote in his Wikipedia entry …

“I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.”

Godspeed, Mr. Gygax.