Ross Pavlac – Fan
18. Sep, 2009 
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Chicon IV, the 40th Worldcon program book
Over on the Pogo post, Mike Glyer (of File 770 fame) commented that:
“The late Ross Pavlac was such a fan of A. Bertram Chandler that after the author visited his apartment Pavlac wouldn’t empty the ash tray he had used.” (Ross Pavlac – 1951 – 1997)
Ross (here, here, here, more here, here and all over google by searching his name – and no doubt other places I should have mentioned that Gary Farber will let us all know about in the comments) was a BNF and, as Mike mentioned, a big fan of ABC.
So much so in fact that I suspect he bid for and co-chaired Chicon IV (1982) for the sole purpose of insuring that Chandler would be given the GoH honors at a Worldcon at least once in his lifetime. (Chicon IV daily fanzine)
Ross was a huge Fanac participant – a go-to guy for convention running, contributor to many fanzines, author/publisher of his own (Avenging Aardvark), a supporter/creator of Christian fandom and even managed to contribute some posthumous fanac.
When Chandler’s wife Susan died a few years ago, there was a bit of a panic over the fate and disposition of Jack’s papers and remaining, unpublished stories. Three stories in particular.
One was written for an unnameable Harlan Ellison anthology. Ellison has assured me that it is absolutely and unequivocally unobtainable .
Another (Grimes and the Gaijin Daimyo) was finally published by Jack Dann in his Dreaming Again anthology.
The third was missing. Barry Malzeberg (who’d agented for Chandler) didn’t know where it was. David Hartwell – to whom it had supposedly been sold – didn’t know where it was. The estate agent (Jabberwocky Literary Agency) didn’t have it and didn’t know where it was.
But Ross kind of did.
He’d gotten Chandler as GoH for the Marcon XIII convention and prepared an enourmous collection of bibliographic materials for the program book.
Marcon XIII Program Book
(Image courtesy of www.bertramchandler.com).
David Kelleher of the Bertram Chandler website (uber collector of all things Chandler) managed to obtain Ross’s copy of the above program guide. Scribbled on the bibliography in pencil was Ross’s note that a story entitled Another Redskin Bit The Dust* had been sold to David Hartwell’s Cosmos magazine.
This bit of forensic evidence proved to be the clue that was needed to track down and finally determine (with very little doubt remaining) that Another Redskin had, in fact, been incorporated into Chandler’s novel The Far Traveler.
Thank you, Ross.
And incidentally, the above is one reason why it is SO important to preserve all of the ephemera of fannish history.
*in an earlier iteration of this post I misremembered the title of the story as ‘Let Sleeping Dogs Lie’. I’ve since corrected that.
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Ross is one of the many old friends that I mention on the sidebar of my blog that I miss.
Any other comment from me would go on too long: history of the Columbus Light Cavalry (which others could tell better than I, anyway), and so much more.
Both co-chairmen of Chicon IV, Ross, and Larry Propp, were struck down far too young. I worked closely with them when I wore two hats on that con, as head of the Operations Sub-Division (with three separate departments), which was part of the Services Division headed by Ben Yalow, and I was also Assistant Director of Services.
Many anecdotes come to mind, all of which are too long for a blog comment. Ross is missed, and Larry, too; I miss them.
Wh doesn’t that woman have a spacesuit?
“That woman” is intended to be the late Lee Hoffman, Fan GoH at Chicon (as the man next to her is obviously ABC, Pro GoH) and she is dressed that way because this cover is a loving parody of old-time SF illustrations.
As you’d see on the actual back cover if you opened the book to reveal the full spread, what they are firing at is a monster bearing down at them, in the likeness of (also the late *sigh*) Frank Kelly Freas, Artist GoH and the artist of the cover. He is bearing equipment and weaponry in the likess of artist’s gear.
It’s a terrifically amusing and appropriate illustration for the convention program book.
I remember at a MidWestCon someone introducing a young lady to Larry Propp, saying “Larry, tell her what you do for a living.”
Larry bowed over the drink in his hand and said with a flourish, “Madam, I am a liar, I am a cheat, I am a shyster, and I am a thief. In short, *I*,” and he raised his glass as if to toast, “am an attorney.”