Roy Tackett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roy Tackett
May 20, 1925(1925-05-20) – May 23, 2003 (aged 78)
Roy Tackett
Nickname	HORT
Place of birth	Colorado
Place of death	Albuquerque, New Mexico
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1942-1962
Rank	Master Sergeant
Unit	2nd Battalion 7th Marines
Battles/wars	World War II Battle of Guadalcanal Battle of Peleliu *Battle of Okinawa
Other work	Author, co-founder Bubonicon

Roy Tackett (also known as Horrible Old Roy Tackett) was a riflemen with the United States Marine Corps during World War II who was credited with the introduction of science fiction to Japan following the war when he was stationed in that nation as part of the American occupation.^[1]^[2]

During the early 1950's Tackett was a Drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. After leaving the Marines in 1962 with 20 years of service Roy went on to co-found Bubonicon with fellow author Robert E. Vardeman^[3] in 1969, the same year he was the Guest of Honor at Westercon. Additionally he produced more than 100 issues of his fanzine Dynatron during the 1960s, and was the TransAtlantic Fan Fund winner for 1976.^[4]In 1997 Roy was the Worldcon Guest of Honor and was inducted in to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in a ceremony held in San Antonio, Texas.^[5]^[6] As part of the run up to the ceremony in San Antonio, Mojo Press released The least Horrible of Roy Tackett which consisted of selected short stories he had written over the previous 50 years.^[7] Roy Tackett died in 2003 of heart failure brought on by years of heavy smoking, and was buried in the Santa Fe National Cemetery.