Benjamin Kolinsky, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, was a kindhearted man, and a longtime fan of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, particularly the legendary character Tarzan. Over the course of many decades, Kolinsky, an assiduous collector, assembled a collection of editions of Burroughs' Tarzan books, Tarzan audiovisual media, and a wide variety of interesting Tarzan memorabilia and ephemera. He donated his collection to Cushing Memorial Library & Archives in late 2022.

Benjamin Kolinsky passed away in January 2023, beloved by his family.

Kate Adele Hill, leader in home demonstration work in the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, daughter of William Hickman and Beatrice (Boyce) Hill, was born on November 19, 1900, in Manor, Texas. In the early 1900s the family moved to a ranch in Kerr County and later to Schleicher and Tom Green counties, where Kate received her early education from governesses. She graduated from San Angelo High School in 1917 and attended the University of Texas in 1920–21 before receiving a B.S. in home economics, with a major in foods and nutrition, in 1925 from the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman's University). During pauses in her college studies she taught school in Sonora and worked in social welfare.

Hill initiated her career with the Extension Service in 1925 as county home-demonstration agent for Cameron County in San Benito. She carried out a typical agenda of demonstration activities designed to improve the lives of rural and small-town women: sewing, canning, landscaping, home design, and so on. In June 1929 she became a district agent and began supervising county home-demonstration agents throughout Central Texas. In October 1934 she transferred to the Edwards Plateau and Big Bend; in that area she traveled 2,000 miles a month in her supervisory duties. Impressed by the tenacity of the women whom she met in the semiarid region, Hill began writing sketches of women who had settled in the area in the 1880s and 1890s for Cattleman magazine. She collected twelve sketches and privately published them in 1937 as Home Builders of West Texas. She then returned to the Texas State College for Women, where she received an A.B. degree in sociology in 1939.

She continued as a district agent in two other West Texas districts until 1951, when she joined the state office of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service in College Station as studies and training leader. She received a master's degree in rural sociology and agricultural economics from Texas Tech University in 1951 and a Ph.D. from Texas Woman's University in general home economics in 1957. She privately published her doctoral dissertation under the title Home Demonstration Work in Texas. From 1958 until her retirement on August 31, 1963, Hill served as a reports analyst for the Extension Service. After her retirement she wrote and privately published A. L. Ward-Texan, 1885–1965 (1967) and Lon C. Hill, 1862–1935: Lower Rio Grande Valley Pioneer (1973). She also wrote poetry.

Kate Hill was president of the Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women's clubs in 1938 and president of the Texas State College for Women Alumnae Association from 1956 to 1958. She was also a member of the American Home Economics Association, Texas Home Economics Association, and Texas Agricultural Workers Association. She was named Distinguished Woman of Texas in 1962 and was president of the Texas Literary Council in 1966. In 1971 she received the Distinguished Alumnae Award of Texas Woman's University. She was a Methodist and a Democrat. Hill moved to a retirement home in San Angelo and died there on October 30, 1982.

Rebecca Sharpless, “Hill, Kate Adele,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 13, 2023, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hill-kate-adele.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Eugene Butler was born on June 11, 1894, in Starkville, Mississippi. His father, Dr. Tait Butler, was co-supervisor of Progressive Farmer magazine and a professor of veterinary medicine at Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State). Butler enrolled in Mississippi A&M in 1909 and received his first bachelor's degree in 1913 at the age of nineteen. He then worked as a farm laborer for four years to gain experience while simultaneously pursuing additional degrees. He received a second bachelor's degree in Agriculture from Cornell University in 1915. From Cornell, he went to Iowa State University where he received a master's degree in Agronomy in 1917. His education completed, Butler returned home to work with his father and soon became involved with the Progressive Farmer as an assistant editor in Memphis, Tennessee.

After his initial position as assistant editor, Butler rapidly climbed the Progressive Farmer administrative ladder. In 1922 he became editor of the Texas edition of Progressive Farmer and manager of the Dallas office. He remained in Dallas and became a member of the executive committee in 1939, vice-president of the board of directors in 1943, and president of the company in 1953. Six years later he was named chairman of the editorial board and editor-in-chief.

Butler served as president of the Progressive Farmer Company until 1968, after which the company's name was changed to Southern Progress Corporation. However, he retained his titles as chairman of the board and editor-in-chief. In 1983 Southern Progress Corporation was purchased by Time Inc. Since his retirement as editor-in-chief, Butler has remained active in the Progressive Farmer Company by continuing to research and write the history of the company.

Following in his father's footsteps, Butler achieved many goals for the Progressive Farmer Company during his more than half a century as editor. Among these achievements were two new additions to the company: Southern Living and the Oxmoor Press of Birmingham, Alabama.

Butler did not restrict himself to working on the magazine, however. His interests lay in almost any area relating to agriculture. Some of his more significant involvements were in crusades for better rural life, farm legislation, and farm practices. Throughout his career, Butler gave numerous speeches, wrote hundreds of articles and editorials, and collected extensive information on contemporary agricultural issues ranging from rural health to better methods of cotton fertilization. In the fifty years of his activity, Butler worked for and witnessed remarkable progress in many of these areas.

He was a charter member of the Texas Agricultural Workers Association, a charter member and historian of the Dallas Agricultural Club, and a researcher and activist for cotton insect control.

In recognition of his contributions, both to the Progressive Farmer and other causes, Butler received several awards. Among them were the Hoblitzelle Award in 1953 and an award for "Outstanding Contribution to Welfare of all Texas Agriculture through Accurate and Effective Presentation of Information and Constructive Leadership" given by the Texas Cottonseed Crushers Association.

Always very active and involved, Butler has enjoyed reading, gardening, collecting books on the Confederacy, golfing, and fishing all his life.

Butler married Mary Britt Burns in 1921. They had one son, Eugene Britt, and one daughter, Mary Jean. The son followed in his father's footsteps in working for the Progressive Farmer Company.

The Cepheid Variable Science Fiction Club came into being in the period 1967 – 1969, the result of science fiction fans gradually coming together and organizing. Following a trip to the World Science Fiction Convention in 1967, Annette Bristol and Danielle Dabbs started the first known science fiction club, with Annette the President, Dabbs the secretary, and John Moffitt as vice-president. The club was pictured in the 1968 Aggieland, with officers listed there. The club was sponsored by the English Department, with two English professors as advisors.

In 1969, Cepheid was a part of "Science Fiction Week," the immediate precursor to AggieCon. "Science Fiction Week" featured Harlan Ellison as special guest, joined by Chad Oliver. Ellison spoke to many (perhaps 30) English classes. His visit was culminated by a meal function at the Ramada Inn, recalled by many for a "food fight" among other things. Cepheid was dissolved as a club, in part due to issues with the hotel.

In 1970, Gary Mattingly reorganized Cepheid Variable and became the second President of the club. Cepheid held a convention in the spring, referred to as a "comics and trade convention" in the Bryan Eagle. In 1971/1972, the first constitution of the club was written.

In April, 1972, the first named convention, AggieCon III was staged by Cepheid Variable. AggieCon is the most visible aspect of the Cepheid Variable Club, and has been continuously produced from 1969 to 2005 at this writing. It has been a very successful convention, and holds the distinction of being the longest continuously operating convention completely run by a student group. Cepheid Variable and AggieCon have many alumni in science fiction. Among them are Steve Gould, author; Noel Wolfman, currently a production supervisor for Dreamworks; Jayme Lynn Blaschke, author and editor; Martha Wells, author; and Brad Foster, Hugo winning artist.

Over the years, AggieCon has hosted many important names in the science fiction and fantasy field as Guests of Honor. Among them are: Harlan Ellison, Anne McCaffery, Fred Pohl, Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, Theodore Sturgeon, Bob Tucker, Chad Oliver, Poul Anderson, Jack Williamson, Kelly Freas, Joe Haldeman, C. J. Cherryh, Roger Zelazny, Harry Harrison, L. Sprague de Camp, Catherine de Camp, John Varley, George R. R. Martin, Ben Bova, Spider Robinson, Jeanne Robinson, Walter Koenig, Fred Saberhagen, Lynn Abbey, David Drake, Michael Moorcock, Julius Schwartz, Greg Bear, Charles De Lint, Lois McMaster Bujold, Margaret Weis, Dave Wolverton, Jim Baen, Nancy A. Collins, Joe Lansdale, Bruce Sterling, Robert Asprin, Terry Pratchett, Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman, Todd McCaffrey, and Elizabeth Moon.

AggieCon has also included numerous Texas authors as guests, many who have gone on to establish international reputations. AggieCon has been an important venue for Texas authors to promote their works, and regional guests have included authors such as Neal Barrett, Jr., Rachel Caine, Lillian Stewart Carl, Bill Crider, Carol Nelson Douglas, Steve Gould, Rory Harper, Katherine E. Kimbriel, Tom Knowles, Joe Lansdale, Justin Leiber, Ardath Mayhar, Laura Mixon, Warren Norwood, Chad Oliver, George W. Proctor, Tom Reamy, Nina Romberg, Lewis Shiner, Bruce Sterling, Lisa Tuttle, Steven Utley, Howard Waldrop, Martha Wells, along with many others.

This list of science fiction personalities is impressive, and has afforded the students of Texas A&M University the opportunity to hear them speak, visit with them, and become acquainted with their writings. Few events on this campus have exposed students to as many literary figures than has AggieCon.

Early in the existence of AggieCon, program booklets became standard fare. The first program book in the collection comes from AggieCon 7, 1976. The contents of the program books vary, but typically they include brief biographies and photos of guests, descriptions of movies, lists of committee members, schedules of events, and illustrations by guests or committee members. Bill Page did a brief history of AggieCon in the AggieCon XX Program Book. He noted that AggieCons II and III were small, with no Guest of Honor, and that "AggieCon III was the first to be called AggieCon." Most of the stories of AggieCon remain to be told. The infamous food fight of the 1969 event, featuring Harlan Ellison, remains legendary, but mostly unrecorded, as do most of the events of the following years.

AggieCon evolved over the years, to become a well-regarded event featuring books and authors, soon adding artists, and then later to feature media programming and stars more prominently, and then back toward a more print-oriented convention.

Cepheid Variable and AggieCon served as the focal point for many activities. Science fiction and fantasy has always been the core around which the club and conventions were built. Additional interests reflected in club and convention activities included: motion picture screenings, gaming, comics fandom, anime and manga, music (including performances by "Los Blues Guys"), filk singing, the SCA (Society for Creative Anacronism), fantasy weapons (especially swords and knives), costuming, and others.

While there is no official connection between AggieCon and the University Library, the two organizations have complemented each other for years. The Cushing Library Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection has been a tour site for many years, introducing authors and fans to the existence of the collection, and affording them the opportunity to see items they have never had the opportunity of view. Those contacts have fostered later research visits to the collection, and have resulted in donations to the collection.

The convention struggled for years as an independent effort. In the fall of 1972, Cepheid Variable became a sub-committee of the Contemporary Arts Committee of the MSC. A year or two later, it became an MSC Committee.

The successful acceptance of the group as an MSC Committee provide funding, guaranteed access to MSC space for the convention and programming, fiscal handling support, and advice and guidance from the Memorial Student Center administration and staff. The latter was regarded with a jaundiced eye by Cepheids, but, it should be noted, they diligently listened and heeded the advice of the MSC administrators – occasionally. In 2004, "budget restrictions" were cited as the reason the MSC dropped Cepheid Variable from MSC Committee status and support. The student organizers continued their work, and successfully produced AggieCon 35 in 2005.

Glen Cook was born on July 9, 1944, in New York, NY. He worked in a variety of jobs prior to his retirement in 1998. Cook is best known for his "Garrett" series and for his "Black Company" series. Critics note that he features the "common man" more centrally than most SF and fantasy writers.

Glen Cook was born in New York, NY on July 9, 1944. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1965 and worked a number of blue-collar jobs for General Motors before turning to write full-time. Cook's first published work was The Heirs of Babylon, published in 1972.

It was during Cook's time working for General Motors that he began writing The Black Company (published 1984), the first of the Chronicles of the Black Company, a gritty fantasy series of novels and short stories that chronicles the adventures of an elite mercenary company. His other series include the Garret P.I. series, a set of detective novels set in a world of fantasy creatures, and the Dread Empire fantasy series.

August Derleth's career started at age 15 with the sale of a story to Weird Tales. He was a prolific and varied writer. During his career, he published over 100 novels, short stories, poetry volumes, biographies, histories, articles, and essays. He wrote historical fiction novels as well as poetry, juvenile fiction, mysteries, and science fiction/fantasy tales. Derleth himself was an avid reader; his personal library numbered approximately 12,000 volumes. He was also a nature enthusiast; his love for nature is apparent in many of his works. Derleth collected American commemorative stamps and comics; he reputedly had the world's largest collection of comics.

August Derleth began Arkham House Publishing to publish the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Ironically, the two never met. While Derleth was young, he and Lovecraft began corresponding with one another. They typically exchanged letters several times a month until Lovecraft's death.

• February 2, 1904: born in Sauk City, WI to William Julius and Rose Louise Derleth
• 1930: University of Wisconsin, B.A.
• 1930-1931: associate editor, Fawcett Publications, Milwaukee
• 1931-1971: free-lance write
• 1934-1943: contributing editor, Outdoors Magazine
• 1937-1943: served as director, Sauk City Board of Education
• 1938: winner of Guggenheim Fellowship (sponsored by Sinclair Lewis, Edgar Lee Masters, and Helen Constance White)
• 1939-1943: special lecturer in American Regional Literature at the University of Wisconsin
• 1939-1971: publisher, Arkham House
• 1941-1971: literary editor and weekly columnist (1961-1971) for the Capital Times
• 1953: married Sandra Evelyn Winters (two children, April Rose and Walden William)
• 1958: 1st prize winner in Scholastic Magazine's short story contest for "The Tail of the Dog"
• 1959: divorced from Sandra Evelyn Winters Derleth
• 1966: winner, Governor's Award. for distinguished service to the creative arts for Return to Walden West
• July 4, 1971: died

Edward Everett, soldier, military clerk, illustrator, and cartographer (also nephew and namesake of the Unitarian Minister and Gettysburg orator Edward Everett), was born in London, England March 31, 1818. In 1840, his father, Charles Everett, a successful import/export dealer in London, relocated the family to Quincy, Illinois. By his twenties, Edward Everett had already shown an exemplary aptitude for drawing, mechanics, chemistry, and engineering.

In 1843, with his brother, Charles Everett, Jr., Edward Everett joined the famed Quincy Riflemen, led by James Morgan, to challenge the growing Mormon stronghold in the Illinois area. He and his brother fought in the battle of Nauvoo, the last anti-Mormon armed conflict. A few days after war was declared against Mexico (1846) the Everett brothers, along with others of the Quincy Riflemen, which had been mustered out of state service, joined the United States service and were transferred to the Texas-Mexico border.

As a soldier for the U. S. Army in the Mexican War, Edward Everett served as a peace-keeper and member of Company A, First Illinois Volunteers. Soon after arriving in South Texas, however, after a forced march of 150 miles from outside New Orleans, to reach San Antonio de Bexar in order to guard stores left there, Everett was severely wounded. On September 11, 1846, while acting in his role as sergeant of the patrol guard, to arrest a man inciting a riot in the town, Everett was shot in the knee, a wound that eventually left him crippled. Unable to continue on with his regiment under Brigadier General John E. Wool to Saltillo, Everett was confined to the military tent hospital in San Antonio, and thereafter declared permanently disabled from active military service.

Everett began writing about Texas and Mexico in letters to his brother Samuel W. Everett back home in Illinois, and in his journals, while he was recuperating from his wound. Everett continued recording his observations after being re-assigned as Assistant Quartermaster for Captain James Harvey Ralston, a position Everett held during the remainder of the war. Everett notes that, in his role as a clerk, furloughed from active duties as a soldier, he had a unique vantage point from which to observe the culture and events around him, and ample opportunity to employ his innate ability to communicate with words and illustrations. As an accountant for the quartermaster, Everett also wrote many official reports, and his skill in presenting a clear narrative is evident in the papers.

During this period, Everett produced many fine illustrations of the Spanish mission buildings in the area, including the Alamo Mission buildings. The memoir included in the papers gives a particularly immediate account of the Alamo buildings' decay and attempts in the spring of 1847 at renovating them for an army store depot and officers' workshops. For example, Everett also illustrated his account with a lively pen and ink vignette of a bat hanging onto whatever it could find, after being so disturbed.

Edward Everett married Mary A. Billings of Quincy, Ill. October 7, 1857, the sister of a Unitarian minister. After his retirement in 1859 from active duty in the military, Everett worked as chief clerk in Washington, and later, during the Civil War, became Illinois Assistant Quartermaster, earning the rank of Major. In his later life, he apparently also illustrated several articles on Hawaii and other places to which he and his wife traveled. He died July 24, 1903, in Roxbury, Mass., and is buried in Boston, Mass. in Forest Hills Cemetery.

There is very little biographical information on Colonel Hanes in these papers. His rank designation was 05198, Quarter Master Commander (QMC). Hanes also was reassigned in 1943 to be Commanding Officer, General Depot G-45. Letters written to Colonel Hanes indicate that he was married to Mary Evelyn, living in Washington, D.C.

Susan Frank was born in 1948 and grew up in Woods Hole, on Cape Cod, MA. She graduated from Smith College in 1970, attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for two years, and received a doctorate in Religious Studies from Temple University in 1990. Frank was a librarian for many years at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, PA.

Frank came to Klingon fandom in the late 1980s, when she first became aware of the phenomenon. As an active fan, Frank founded the long-running Klingon-themed fanzine Agonizer and has been a member of several different fan clubs, including the Klingon Assault Group, the Klingon Strike Force, Clan Makura on KlingonSpace, The Empire, and the Ring of Fire Fleet. She has also, as have many fans, adopted an individual fannish persona - Admiral (Retired) Kishin vestai-Rustadz, of clan Shawan.

As a fan, Frank enthusiastically engaged in the same creative passions that drive many of her fellow fans. As a librarian, Frank was naturally drawn towards collecting and organizing many of the written and other materials produced by fans. Although Frank has ceased her active collecting (due to increased online activity among Klingon fans that has reduced the output of physical materials), she still remains an active and enthusiastic fan and a follower based in Philadelphia, PA.

Texas A&M University at College Station is part of the Texas A&M College System which was created in 1948, later Texas A&M University System when the name changed in 1963.

The A&M Bicycle Club was created in August of 1897. The first elected officers of the club were Prof. W. B. Philpott (president), J. A. Baker (secretary), C. C. Todd (treasurer), and Professor Smith (Road Master). Misses Bittle and Sbisa were elected sponsors to look after the treasurer. Subsequent presidents of the years 1898-1901 were Charles Puryear and Prof. Smith. The original membership fee was $5.00. The Constitution of the College Bicycle Club was written by Prof. Connell and Mr. Todd and was adopted on September 1, 1897. A major project of the club was the acceptance, repair, maintenance, and addition to a bicycle track built by Professor. R. F. Smith in 1897-1898.

Charles Woodward Hutson was a professor of English and History at A&M from 1893-1908. He was an artist and author who taught at numerous Southern universities over the course of 40 years. He was born in South Carolina in 1840. During the Civil War, Hutson served in the Confederate Army in Virginia as a member of Hampton’s Legion, and later with the Beaufort Artillery under General J.E. Johnston. He died in New Orleans in 1936.

Howard R. Cavitt was born son to Major William Richard Cavitt (1849-1924) and Mary (Mitchell) Cavitt (1854-1914) in Bryan-College Station, Texas.
Howard served as Captain and commanding officer of Company G, 2nd Infantry Regiment known as the Bryan Light Guard, Texas National Guard, from 1902-1904. His brother, Fred L. Cavitt, was appointed 4th sergeant in the Bryan Light Guard under him. Howard's sister Esther Cavitt (1891-1958) taught at Allen Academy in Bryan, Texas.
Howard married Miss Emily Thomas on April 2, 1912, he was owner and proprietor of Bryan Motor Car Company, and his hobbies included hunting, gardening, and amateur photography.
Howard R. Cavitt died at age 31 in the Brazos River flood of 1913 during which he and three others offered aid and rescue to those in distress. Cavitt and two of the other three men (both worked for Cavitt at Bryan Motor) lost their lives from exposure to the elements and exhaustion on December 8, 1913, after their boat was disabled. Tom Evans, was the only survivor of the aid and rescue party.

R. C. Leffel was from San Angelo, TX, and was part of the graduating Class of 1918 at Texas A&M College. He was a member and one of three sergeants in the TAMC Marching Band. Leffel earned his BA in Animal Husbandry at TAMC in 1918 at the age of 21. Leffel was a first lieutenant in the band ’18, President of West Texas Club, Sergeant toran West Texas Club ’17, Sergeant at Arms, West Texas Club ’16. His nickname was “Jay-Bird” and he was known as a cattle breeder in the hills of West Texas.

Today, the Texas A&M Flying Club is located at Easterwood Field in College Station, TX.

Lieutenant Haynes Webster Dugan was born March 23, 1913, in Sherman, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M in 1934 and received his master's degree in Journalism in 1936.

Haynes Dugan was commissioned a second lieutenant and served in WWII as a public relations officer under General George S. Patton along with many other influential military leaders. He received the Bronze Star along with other medals for valiant leadership from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day. Dugan served as the historian for the 3rd Armored Division and assisted in archives for the 3rd Armored Division in Illinois. He wrote many books on WWII, including On My Way to the Cemetery.

Dugan passed away on February 6, 2007, in Shreveport, LA.

Josh B. Sterns graduated from Texas A&M in 1899. He was a part of the Aggie Fossil Club of College Station, TX. He presented a collection of 10 Aggie class rings to TAMU in January 1970, which date back to 1889. He dropped out due to health reasons and returned to finish his degree in 1903 with a degree in Civil Engineering. He was in the football team for both times at TAMC and went on to help the Aggies “Saw varsities horns off” with the first defeat against the University of Texas in 1902. Josh Sterns’ civil engineering career spanned work in railroad maintenance of over 1,000 miles of track in Texas.

Friedrich Ernst Giesecke was born in 1869 and graduated from New Braunfels High School at age 13. He then enrolled at Texas A&M College in the Fall of 1883 at age 14. At the age of 17, Giesecke graduated in the Class of 1886 and was the ranking officer in the Corps of Cadets. After graduation, he joined the A&M faculty and two years later was named head of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Later, he helped to set up a Department of Architecture in 1905.

Giesecke designed and/or supervised the construction of Sbisa Dining Hall in 1912, the Academic Building, Chemistry Building, System Administration Building, Cushing Memorial Library, Hart Hal, Walton Hall, and 14 other buildings on campus. In 1927 he returned to A&M to resume his role as College Architect and Dean of the School of Architecture.

Dr. Wendell G. Swank graduated West Virginia University in 1941 with a BS in Forestry. He received a MS in Wildlife and Fisheries at the University of Michigan, and a PhD.  of the same subject at Texas A&M University in 1951. He taught at TAMU from 1957-1988.

Pat Mueller Virzi is a Texas-based fan, fanzine writer, and publisher. She has produced a number of fanzines, including Pirate Jenny, Awry/Oblique, Pint-Size Stories, Cactus Clipper(the newsletter for the 1987 Westercon), and, most notably, The Texas SF Inquirer. Virzi won the 1988 Hugo for Best Fanzine for the SF Inquirer, and has been nominated two other times (1987, 1990) for the same award.

Virzi has been a Guest of Honor at multiple SF conventions, including the 1988 CopperCon8 and Lunacon 31, the 1990 NorWesCon XII, the 1991 ArmadilloCon 13, the 1992 Westercon, the 1993 NorWesCon XVI, and the 2010 ApolloCon.

Marmaduke Knox Thornton Jr. was born in 1892 in Arkansas. He attended Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University) and graduated in 1909 with a BS in Education. Thornton married Lucille Ramsey on December 28, 1921. They had two children, Lucille Thornton, and Marmaduke III.  He was a professor of Industrial Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M College from 1919-1934. He later became various specialists at Texas A&M College along with the Agricultural Extension services until his retirement in 1964. Thornton Jr. died on January 8, 1984, in Bryan, TX.

Fritz Lieber was born in Chicago, Illinois December 24, 1910. He attained a Ph. B. from the University of Chicago in 1932. He served as an Episcopal minister, a Shakspearian actor, an editor, and a writing instructor. In 1943, his work began appearing in Weird Tales and Unknown Worlds. Leiber is well-known and well regarded in the field. His novels, Conjure Wife, Gather, Darkness, A Specter is Haunting Texas, the Silver Eggheads, and his stories and novels of Lankhmar are all popular favorites with science fiction fans. Leiber received eight Hugo awards, three Nebula awards, the Gandalf Award, and three World Fantasy Awards, plus a number of awards for horror. He is a central figure in the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was a central figure during the so-called "Golden Age of Science Fiction". Thanks to his legendary Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, of which the first, "Two Sought Adventure" was published in August 1939 in Unknown Magazine, he is also considered one of the founders of the genre of sword-and-sorcery fantasy fiction (in fact, he invented the term). Born in Chicago, Illinois on December 24, 1910, Leiber graduated from the University of Chicago in 1932 with a degree in philosophy. Before embarking on a full-time writing career he studied at the Anglican-based General Theological Seminary and worked as a lay preacher, and also toured with his parents' acting company. From 1941-1947 he was a speech and drama instructor at Los Angeles' Occidental College, and from 1947-1958 was the editor of Science Digestin Chicago. In 1958 he left that post to write full-time.

Leiber had already been writing for two decades before that, however. (His earliest stories bear dates of 1934 and 1935.) His most important works include the novels Conjure Wife (1943, which could be considered a precursor to the urban fantasy genre in that it is one of the first novels to involve witches living in the modern world); Gather, Darkness! (1950); The Big Time (1958), which won the 1958 Hugo Award for Best Novel; The Wanderer (1964), which won the 1965 Hugo Award for Best Novel; and A Specter is Haunting Texas (serialized 1968, published as a novel 1969). He wrote a legion of short stories, which were collected in a number of collections that include Night's Black Agents (1947); A Pail of Air (1964); The Book of Fritz Leiber (1974); and The Second Book of Fritz Leiber (1975).

Leiber is most famous for his stories about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, two wandering adventurers who live in the fictional world of Nehwon ("no-when" spelled backwards) and are general opposites. Fafhrd is a huge and highly skilled barbarian, while the Mouser is a diminutive yet deadly-with-the-sword thief. The two engage in rollocking and exciting adventures across Nehwon, particularly in and around the city of Lankhmar. Leiber wrote these stories starting in 1939, with the last one appearing in 1988. The characters were co-created by Leiber and his friend Harry Otto Fischer, in an attempt to develop fantasy characters groundedmore on realistic human nature than were Howard's Conan or Burroughs' Tarzan. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser appeared in numerous short stories, novellas, comic book adaptations, and even games (Leiber and Fischer invented a wargame set within Nehwon in 1937, that under the name Lankhmar was reworked and released as a simplified boardgame by TSR in 1976.)

Leiber married Jonquil Stephens in 1936; the two had a son, Justin, in 1938. Jonquil died in 1969, which caused Lieber to move to San Francisco and descend temporarily into alcoholism. In 1977 he returned to the literary world with the semi-autobiographical (and heavily Jungian) novel Our Lady of Darkness, which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1978. In 1992, Leiber met and married Margo Skinner, and he died on September 5, 1992.

Leiber was nominated for and/or won a number of awards in the course of his career. Besides the awards mentioned above, he also won the 1962 Hugo Special Award for the Use of SF in Advertisements, the 1968 Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novelette for Gonna Roll The Bones, the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novella for Ship of Shadows, the 1971 Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella for Ill-Met in Lankhmar, the 1975 Locus Poll Award for Best Single Author Collection for The Book of Fritz Leiber, the 1976 BFA Award for Best Short Story for The Second Book of Fritz Leiber, the 1976 Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Short Story for "Catch That Zeppelin!", the 1976 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction for "Belsen Express", the 1981 Balrog Special Award, and (posthumously) the 2011 LocusPoll Award for Best Collection for Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories.

In addition, Leiber also received the 1975 Gandalf Award for Grandmaster of Fantasy, the 1976 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and in 1981 was made a Grand MAster by the SFWA.

Tanith Lee was one of the most acclaimed, notable and prolific British authors of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Since the beginning of her literary career in 1968, she wrote nearly 70 novels (including works of fantasy for young adults), hundreds of short stories, multiple collected works, poems, and essays. She even dabbled in television, having written two episodes of the British science-fiction cult show Blake's 7.

Lee was born in London, England, on September 19, 1947. She began writing at the age of 9, despite suffering from dyslexia that prevented her from reading well. She attended Croydon Art College for a year after high school and then worked a variety of odd jobs for a number of years while she tried to build a writing career. Her first actual sale of work came in 1968, with the publication of "Eustace", a 90-word vignette that appeared in The Ninth Pan Book Of Horror Stories. In 1971 Macmillan published her first novel, a young adult fantasy entitled The Dragon's Hoard. Lee's first work for adults was the novel The Birthgrave, published by DAW in 1975 and the first of an eventual trilogy.

Over the course of her storied career, Lee produced a dizzying variety of works, which include the famed Tales From The Flat Earth series (1978-1987, with additional short stories from 1998-2009); The Secret Books of Paradys series (1988-1993); the Unicorn Series (1991-1997); the Blood Opera Sequence (1992-1994); the historical novel The Gods Are Thirsty (1996); and The Secret Books of Venus (1998-2003). Lee's work is noted for her lush, lyrical, and sensual tones, as well as frequent themes of darkness and eroticism.

Lee also received multiple accolades for her work. She won the 1980 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Death's Master (the 2nd in her Tales From The Flat Earth series), becoming the first woman to win this award. She also won the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction for "The Gorgon," that same award in 1984 for "Elle Est Trois, Le Mort", and the 2013 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. In addition, she received multiple nominations for Nebula Awards, World Fantasy Awards, Locus Poll Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and others. In 2015 she was awarded the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Horror Writers Association.

Tanith Lee married John Kaiine in 1992. She passed away from breast cancer on May 24, 2015.

Andre Norton (Alice Mary Norton) was born on February 7, 1912, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Adelbert Freely and Bertha Stemm Norton. Norton began her literary career at an early age, serving as the editor of a literary page in her high school's paper called The Collinwood Spotlight, for which she also wrote short stories. During this time, she actually wrote her first book, Ralestone Luck, which was eventually published as her second novel in 1938.

Norton graduated from high school in 1930, and briefly attended Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University, intending to become a teacher. However, economic circumstances obliged her to leave school in 1932, and instead, she went to work as a librarian with the Cleveland public library system. She was employed here for a number of years, during which time she worked for some time as a children's librarian for the Nottingham Branch Library in Cleveland. After a brief tenure working at the Library of Congress from 1940-1941, and a failed attempt to operate a bookstore in Mount Rainier, MD, she returned to the Cleveland Public Library. Ill health forced her to retire from the library in 1950. From 1950-1958 Norton was a reader at the SF small press Gnome Press.

In 1934, Norton published her first book, the novel The Prince Commands, being sundry adventures of Michael Karl, sometime crown prince & pretender to the throne of Morvania. She changed her name legally to "Andre Norton" at this point, believing that readers of fantasy (at that time a mainly male audience) would accept her more under a pseudonym that was not clearly female. Between 1934 and 1948 she wrote several additional historical novels. Her first genre novel was the historical fantasy Huon of the Horn (1951), an adaptation of the medieval tale of Huon, Duke of Bordeaux. Although her first actual work of science fiction or fantasy was actually the novella "The People of the Crater", which she published under the name "Andrew North" in the 1947 magazine Fantasy Book.

Norton's first science fiction novel was Star Man's Son, 2250 A.D., which was released in 1952. This inaugurated a fertile and prolific creative period in her life. By the end of her life, Norton had produced (or co-written) novels and short stories in over 20 different series (as well as many individual stand-alone works), those series including Beast Master (1959-2006, the first novel of which was semi-adapted into a film in 1982); Central Control (1953-1955); Crosstime (1956-1965); Forerunner (1960-1985); Mark of the Cat (1992-2002); Moon Singer/Moon Magic (1966-1990); Star K'aat (1976-1981); Time Traders (1958-2002); and Trillium (1990-1993).

Norton's most famous creation is probably her Witch World high fantasy novel and story cycle. The first of the series, Witch World, was released by Ace Books in 1963 and tells the story of Simon Tregarth, a resident from our Earth who, fleeing a group of assassins, is transported to a parallel world where magic rules. Magic in the Witch World is the exclusive province of women, a situation that governs much of the events that play out in the series. The novel was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel and sparked a long-running series on which Norton increasingly cooperated with other authors starting in the 1980s. Witch World, then, is an early example of what later became known as a "shared universe."

Andre Norton's abilities were recognized during her lifetime by her peers and her many fans, as evidenced by her many awards and nominations. She was nominated twice for the Hugo Award (in 1963 for Witch World, and in 1968 for Best Novelette ("Wizard's World") for numerous Locus Poll awards, and for several World Fantasy Awards. Her wins include the 1975 Phoenix Award for overall achievement in science fiction, the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy Award in 1977 for lifetime achievement, the 1983 Edward E. Smith Award for Imaginative Fiction, the Jules Verne Award in 1984, the 1994 First Fandom Award, and a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention in 1998. In 1984 she was made a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, the first woman to receive this prestigious award (only three other women since Norton have been given this award).

In addition, she was a founding member in the 1960s of the Swordsmen and Sorcerer's Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of heroic fantasy authors that granted entry by fantasy credentials alone. Norton was the only woman among the original eight members.

Norton moved from Florida (where she had lived since 1966) to Murfreesboro, TN in 1987. In her later years, one of her more notable projects was the formation of the High Halleck Genre Writer's Research and Reference Library, a special collections library devoted to science fiction, fantasy, and other genre writing, run by Norton on her own property. The library opened in 1999 and was dispersed after Norton's death. She died of congestive heart failure on March 17, 2005. Her last completed novel, Three Hands for Scorpio, was published a few weeks later on April 1.

In 2005, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America established the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy in Norton's honor. The Norton Award is presented yearly along as part of the Nebula Awards.

Charles Bruce Richardson was born in Virginia in 1808. He moved to Louisiana in 1827 and built a 569-acre plantation on Bayou Macon in Carrol Parish. He married Sarah Elizabeth Bosworth in 1830 and they had four sons. Richardson was appointed by Louisiana governor Isaac Johnson to be captain in the Louisiana Militia in 1846. In 1863, Richardson, his family, and slaves fled to Texas after receiving news that Ulysses. S. Grant's army was approaching. He purchased a 230-acre farm near Henderson, Texas in 1864. Charles Richardson was a self-taught horticulturist and was interested in natural sciences from horticulture to human anatomy and physiology. He published papers on his horticultural research in periodicals ranging from Texas Farm and Ranch to the Annual Reports of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture. He researched such varied subjects as the LeConte Pear, hog Cholera, and Texas Bluegrass and was well renowned East Texas. In addition, Richardson was the first master of the Rusk County Chapter of the Grange in 1874. He died on February 10, 1886.

Established in 1945, the foundation allowed Texas businesses the ability to collaborate with the extensive research facilities of A&M. It amplified the long-established Agriculture and Engineering Experiment Stations of the college who worked, for the most part, on state and federal funds. It was financed by fees charged to industry and individuals seeking information.

John Brunner (September 24, 1934) was a noted British author of science fiction novels and short stories. His first work, Galactic Storm, was written in 1951 under the pseudonym Gill Hunt, and most of his early work consisted of traditional space opera. Starting in the late 1960s, however, Brunner began turning towards more experimental forms of science fiction. His 1968 New Wave novel Stand on Zanzibar appropriated the narrative style pioneered by John Dos Passos, with a mixture of traditional story and large portions devoted to exploring his world's culture and society through advertisements, snippets from books and songs, overheard bits of conversations, and other cultural fragments. The book, which won the 1969 British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel, the 1969 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the 1973 Prix Apollo, tells the story of a 21st century Earth plagued by problems relating to overpopulation.

Other significant works by Brunner include: The Jagged Orbit (1969), which won the 1970 British Science Fiction award and was nominated for the 1970 Nebula for Best Novel; The Sheep Look Up (1972); The Shockwave Rider (1975), in which Brunner invented the concept of a computer 'worm'; and The Infinitive of Go (1980). Infinitive, which was published by Ballantine/Del Rey in 1980, concerns the development of a type of transportation technology that leads to the inadvertent creation of alternate realities.

Brunner died on August 25, 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland.

Brenda Cooper, born August 12, 1960, is a science-fiction and fantasy author, poet, and futurist (or futurologist, that is, one who studies potential and probable futures with subsequent reflections on the present day) from Washington State. She received a BA in Information Management Systems from California State University, Fullerton, and also pursued courses in creative writing (no degree received) from Lower Columbia College in Longview, WA.

Cooper's first short stories, beginning with "Ice and Mirrors" in 2001, were written in collaboration with noted SF author Larry Niven. Her first solo story was "Linda's Dragon", published in Analog in July 2003. Since then she has published over seventy stories in a number of magazines and anthologies. Her first science fiction short-story collection, Cracking The Sky and Other Stories, was released by Fairwood Press in the fall of 2015. (It was preceded by a self-published anthology of her fantasy fiction, Beyond The Waterfall Door, earlier in 2015.)

In 2005 Cooper's first novel (co-written with Niven), Building Harlequin's Door, was published by Tor. Her second (and first solo) novel The Silver Ship and The Seacame out in 2007, and won the 2008 Endeavor Award for Distinguished Novel or Collection. It was also nominated for the 2008 Golden Duck (Hal Clement Young Adult Award).  Her subsequent novels include Reading The Wind (2008), Wings of Creation (2009), Mayan December (2011), and most recently, The Making War (2020). 2012 saw the release of the first novel in Cooper's Ruby's Song duology, The Creative Fire. Both that book and its sequel The Diamond Deep tell the story of mechanic Ruby Martin, member of an underclass laboring on board a vast worldship. Ruby rises from her humble origins to assume the leadership of a class revolt that breaks down age-old social barriers. The duology was followed up by The Edge of Dark (2015), the start of a new series (titled The Glittering Edge) which takes place in the same universe as Ruby's Song, but many years later. Edge of Dark was nominated for the 2016 Philip K. Dick Award. Cooper's most recent works include the 2017 YA novel Post; her climate change-related Project Earth series, Wilders (2017) and Keepers (2018); and the latest in her Fremont's Children/The Silver Ship series, 2020's The Making War.

Cooper also served until recently as the Chief Information Officer for the city of Kirkland, WA. She and her wife reside in western Washington State.

Brenda was educated at California State University, Fullerton, where she earned a BA in Management Information Systems. - See more at: http://www.brenda-cooper.com/about/#sthash.c731HGVQ.dpuf Brenda was educated at California State University, Fullerton, where she earned a BA in Management Information Systems. - See more at: http://www.brenda-cooper.com/about/#sthash.c731HGVQ.dpuf

Michael Lee Lanning is a retired U.S. Army liuetenant colonel and author, specializing in military non-fiction.  As of 2015 Lee has written nineteen books and co-authored an additional two.  The majority of his books have focused on military subjects, has recently added sports, health, and biographical reporting to his list of publications.

Lanning was born on September 18, 1946 to James Maurice and Alice Coskey Lanning in Sweetwater, Texas.  Upon graduating from Trent High School in Trent, Texas in 1964, Lanning entered Texas A&M Universtiy.  Lee was a member of the Corps of Cadets in Company D-1 (Spider D).  During his junior year he was a featured writer for _The Agriculturalist,_a publication of technical information concerning agriculture.  Lee married has wife Linda on December 20, 1967.  As a senior he served on the 1st Battalion staff as the Scholastic/Guidence Officer.  Lee graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree.

Lanning was commissioned in to the U.S. Army after graduating from Texas A&M as a second lieutenant and reported to Ft. Benning in Georgia for infantry, airborne, and ranger training.  He then transferred to the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina where he became a platoon leader of a rifle company.  Lanning depolyed to Vietnam in April of 1969 with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade.  He served as an infantry platoon leader with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry for five months followed by a month as the leader of the Battalion's E Company Reconnaissance Platoon.  After only six months in the war zone and less than 17 months in the Army Lee would be promoted to take command of Bravo Company.  Lanning's tour lasted another six months before he rotated back to the United States.

Lee served only one tour of duty in Vietnam as U.S. started to reduce troops in the country and the turning of the war over to the AVRN.  Over the next few years Lee and his wife would be moved around the United States as part of his service.  In 1974 Lanning was given command of another infantry company, this time in Germany.  During his time in the United States and Germany he served as an instructor in the U.S. Army Ranger School, a mechanized infantry company commander with the 3td Infantry Division, and executive officer of an infantry battalion in the 1st Calvalry Division.  He would go on to serve in a non command capacity as the Public Affairs Officer for the 1st Cavalry Division and I Corps, and the plans officer for the American Foreces Information Service.

While stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington Lee began writing a column for the _Fort Lewis Ranger,_the base newspaper,  called "From the Lee Side" by Michael Lee.  Also as Public Affairs Officer he also in overall charge of the paper.  It was an experience during this time that led him to beginning his first book The Only War We Had: A Plattoon's Leaders Journal of Vietnam. 

In 1988 Lanning retired from the U.S. Army as a Liuetenant Colonel to pursure his writing full time.  His writings would focus on subjects he knew well, the military.

Stacy L. Doyle was a beloved figure in the science fiction fan community. She was born to Leo and Betty Doyle on December 10, 1961, in San Francisco, and at the age of 3, she moved to Marin County, CA where she spent the remainder of her life.

Her fannish interests included, among other subjects, Star Trek, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Starsky & Hutch (the three shows together make up the vast majority of the fanzines and fanvids in the collection), vidding, and fanfic writing.

The best possible encapsulation of Stacy's life and the light she shined on people, is provided by her great friend Liz Keough in 2015:

"What can I say about Stacy…she was generous of her time, friendly, loving, and a born caregiver.  She was at her happiest when she was helping someone.  It didn’t matter if the help was big or small.  Helping you figure out your new phone, computer or getting your VCR/DVD to talk to your TV or helping you decorate for Halloween or Christmas or helping you move. 

Once she discovered fandom she was in 7th heaven, as they say.  She found she wasn’t the only one into Star Trek, Starsky and Hutch, Man from U.N.C.L.E, and so forth that was just the beginning of her fanish pursuits.  She convinced her Mom to drive her to conventions in Sacramento, yes, she had to be driven, as she didn’t have her driver's license yet.  Once she got it and that freedom it garnered her, she was able to go to local conventions by herself.  As she went to more and more conventions she discovered costumes, zines, and vids!...

We met at a Star Trek club meeting in ’86 when a mutual acquaintance brought me along to join the Trek club. She and I started going to conventions together in ’87 I believe, and it was another Star Trek convention of course.  After that, we started going to fan-run conventions as well as the Creation conventions.  At one fan convention...I believe in ’88 or ‘89 she became fascinated by the music vids that were shown.  She asked many questions about how it was done and then the obsession with VCRs began!  She was determined to make a music vid, and once she got the technique down, there was no stopping her.  Every time her Mom went on vacation she dragged out the VCRs the videotapes, and the music and she went to town.  She had a deadline, the day before her Mom got back the vid had to be done!  It had to be done because she had to put the house back together!  So, with very little sleep and a great deal of determination she made her vids. She got really good too and even sold a few of them under the Vids by the Bay label.

After that, we went to the Starsky and Hutch reunion con, and then Escapade started.  Escapade is now celebrating their 25th year and we have attended 23 of them together...Speaking of Escapades, she learned a lot about vid shows from Kandy Fong when she became her helper.  The two of them produced quite a few of the earlier vid shows...She never lost the love of vids, and for the last 4 years talked about getting back into making them and asked many vidders what kind of computer she should get and what software would be best. She bought the computer and the software just a few months ago; sadly, she never got to do this. She would have made amazing song vids if going from the ones she made using two VCRs was any indication.

During the year 2000, a few of us local fans started talking about doing a local con, seeing how Friscon, the current local con at that time was ending, and we wanted to keep a slash con in the San Francisco Bay Area.  So, Stacy, myself and 10 other women decided to form a committee and check it out…. Hence BASCon was founded. We had our first BASCon in November 2001 and it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun.  Stacy worked on the webpages and the vid show.  She learned a lot about making web pages...  Many years later, she somehow started doing the web pages for KisCon, I’m not sure how that came about, but again, she loved doing it.  It fulfilled her creative juices and kept her brain active.  Inbetween Escapades and BAScon she also helped ConneXions with their vid show...

As you can tell, from the above stories, she loved to be needed and she loved to help people.  Whenever she was asked to help with something, she really didn’t need to know what it was before she said yes to helping...

She had an amazing art gallery in her room.  She had one wall full of Star Trek, a wall of MUNCLE, bits of Starsky and Hutch, NCIS, Highlander, Smallville, Wiseguy, Castle and Sherlock.  She was a fan of fandom through and through. Had a lot of friends, and was loved by a lot of people.  The world of Fandom was better for Stacy being in it.  I wish she were still in it, she is truly gone too soon."

Stacy L. Doyle died unexpectedly on November 21, 2014.

William (Bill) Schelly has been chronicling the pop culture fringes since the mid-1960s. Born in Washington State in 1951, he began his career as a writer and artist in the pages of his fanzine Sense of Wonder (1967 – 1972). His first book was Harry Langdon (1982), a biography of the brilliant comedian of Silent Films. Schelly is perhaps best-known for his book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom (1995), the only extensive history of comic book fandom, which was published in a revised and extended version in 1998. Some of Bill Schelly’s subsequent books are Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine (1998) with Roy Thomas, and Sense of Wonder: A Life in Comic Fandom (2001). He currently serves as Associate Editor of the magazine of comic art Alter Ego (TwoMorrows Publishing) and makes his books available through his web site.

William Schelly has enjoyed a long career as a writer, editor, and biographer. He was born on November 2, 1951, in Walla Walla, Washington, and graduated from the University of Idaho in 1973.

A comic-book enthusiast from an early age, Schelly produced his first comic fanzine, _Super-Heroes Anonymous_in 1965. This was the first of a number of fanzines he created  through the early 1970s. It was for his fanzine _Sense of Wonder_that Schelly became known to the comics community. It began as a collection of amateur comics and stories, but in 1970, Schelly changed the format  to a more general fanzine made up of articles and artwork about the history of comic books.

Schelly has written a number of books on the history of comic book fandom, as well as biographies of silent film comedian Harry Langdon, comic book artist Joe Kubert, _Mad Magazine_creator Harvey Kurtzman, and SF and comic book writer Otto Binder.

Yolanda Broyles-González was among the first Chicana Yaqui scholars to attain a doctorate degree and to achieve rank of full professor at a major research university, at the University of California at Santa Barbara.  She received her doctorate degree in German Studies from Stanford University in German Studies and lived in Germany for 12 years where she helped bring Chicana/o and Latin American literature to a European readership.  She corresponded extensively with German intellectuals and also engaged in photojournalism and feature writing while living in Germany.  Her photographs from this period in Germany are part of the collection.  Dr. Broyles-González has held academic appointments at the University of Texas (in Modern Languages), and at the University of California (Chicana/o Studies and German Studies).  She is chairperson/ professor emerita of the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at the University of California Santa Barbara. She also served as chairperson of the Women Studies Department at the University of Arizona in Tucson from 2004-08. Since 2008 she has been appointed in the Mexican American Studies Department at the University of Arizona. In 1996 she received the  Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Chicana & Chicano Studies. After her pay equity lawsuit against the University of California she was honored by President Clinton in the White House.

Dr. Broyles-González’s publications span many areas of borderlands popular culture/performance studies.  Her book publications include:

Lydia Mendoza’s Life in Music.  La historia de Lydia Mendoza. Norteño Tejano Legacies (2001, 2004, 2006 Oxford University Press);   El Teatro Campesino, Theater in the Chicano Movement(1994, UT Press); Re-Emerging Native Women of the Americas: Native Chicana Latina Women’s Studies(2001, Kendall/Hunt); Earth Wisdom. A California Chumash Woman(2011, University of Arizona Press); The German Response to Latin American Literature and the Reception of Jose Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda(1981, Heidelberg) . 

Francisco González is a musician, composer, and specialist in Mexican and Chicano music.  González was born and rasied in East Los Angeles surrounded by multiple Mexican musical traditions such as Norteño, and Jarocho music, as well as by jazz, rock, and salsa.  During the last four decades he has worked in many capacities within Chicano/Mexican music; in performance around the world as a string musician specializing in Mexican harp; a recording artist; as a composer for films; doing lecture demonstrations; and in theater as a musical director for many professional theater productions.  He founded, led, and composed the music for Los Lobos in the 1970s.  Thereafter, he did award-winning musical direction and composition in Chicano theatrical productions, including five years of musical direction for numerous productions with the legendary El Teatro Campesino.  González’s work in musical direction and performance gained widespread recognition.  For outstanding musical direction and arrangement he was awarded the San Francisco Chronicle’s Circle Award “for outstanding achievement in the theater.”  In the last ten years, González has also written and performed music for various films, such as for Cormack McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. Among his recordings are _The Gift/El regalo_and _Viejas Canciones para viejos amigos (Old Songs for Old Friends)._In 2011 González was honored by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation with the Pearl Chase Award honored Gonález for his “lifelong dedication to historic preservation and conservation”—as director of the Santa Barbara Pastorela and for his revival of early California musics. In Tucson, Arizona he has been active establishing a Jarocho harp school for youth.

In addition to theater and film work, González regularly performs Jarocho and Norteño music at clubs, fiestas, and other social gatherings.  He also offers workshops for musicians, and lecture demonstrations on Mexican/Chicano music at universities, schools, and for community groups.  González, under the name of Dueto Guadalupe, plays Mexican harp music within the jarocho and ranchera traditions.  He performs throughout the country accompanied by his daughter Esmeralda Broyles-González on jarana.  In June 2004, González received national recognition from the Smithsonian.  He was recognized at the American Folk life Festival for his contributions as a music string craftsman.  His custom-made strings produced at Guadalupe Custom Strings in Santa Barbara, California (now in Los Angeles) are distributed internationally.