Elizabeth Anne Hull
(January 10, 1937 – August 3, 2021)
Dr. Elizabeth Anne “Betty” Hull was a Chicagoland academic, political activist, collector and SF fan. She was a founder of SFFNCS and a one-time regular at George Price’s. She was a traveling jiant and inveterate con-goer.
She served as president of the Science Fiction Research Association and editor of its newsletter, co-chairing two SFRA Conferences. She was a member of the panel for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best SF novel for over 20 years, beginning in 1986 and a judge for the ISFiC Writers Contest. For over a decade, she served as North American secretary for World SF: An Organization of SF Professionals.
She and Beverly Friend organized the academic track at Chicon 7 in 2012. She ran writers’ workshops and judged writing contests for a number of conventions. She was a contributor to Locus.
She was married to distinguished fan and pro Fred Pohl from 1984 until his death. They met at MidAmeriCon, and he proposed to her with an ad in Locus! With Pohl, Hull edited the international anthology Tales from the Planet Earth. She was editor of the 2010 anthology, Gateways: Original New Stories Inspired by Frederik Pohl.
She was Professor Emerita of William Rainey Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, where she taught English for over 30 years. She was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, and educated at Illinois State University (1954–55); City Colleges of Chicago (A.A., 1965); Northwestern University and Loyola University (M.A., 1970, Ph.D., 1975). At the request of the Democratic Party, she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives for Illinois’ 8th District in 1996; she was defeated by the incumbent.
She was a sparkling conversationalist and brilliantly intelligent ... about everything except computers and the internet (she struggled even with online shopping). She loved Wheel of Fortune and cooking.
She died from complications a few months after falling and fracturing her hip. At age 49, she had had a heart attack and technically died for several minutes. She considered every day afterward a gift.
- Profile at The Way the Future Blogs.
- “Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” Betty on online shopping.
- Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 1989 -- ICON 14
- 1997 -- Thomas D. Clareson Award for Distinguished Service
- 1999 -- DucKon VIII
- 2005 -- NESFA Press Guest at Boskone 42
| Person | 1937—2021 |
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