Norman F. Stanley
(May 1916 – October 22, 2016)
Norm Stanley was a fan from Maine who was very active in the 1940s. He was a member of the Stranger Club (and was one of the members who attended Noreascon 3 as Fan GoH).
He was tangentially involved in the Skowhegan Junior Astronomical and Rocket Society, the sort of science-and-SF club which was common at the time, and offered to let members borrow from his 70-bound-volume sf library.
He attended early conventions such as Philcon and some of the early Boskones. He hosted the Mecon that coined the plural fen in 1943 at his house, Obsequious Manor in Rockland, ME. He also participated in Mainecon, Jr., a "conference" in the language of the times, in 1943 with the Dreaded Claude Degler. He was still active enough in the late ’40s to attend Torcon, but there is little evidence of fanac after 1950.
His major fanzine was Fan-Tods, which ran for 19 issues and was distributed in FAPA, Vanguard and circulated outside. Harry Warner described him as "a power force in FAPA." He also published Beyond with Roscoe E. Wright.
Fannishly, he was very much in the Sense of Wonder camp. He remembered that when his mother told him about Hiroshima, "I confess my first reaction was one of elation, which even the obvious misgivings couldn't quench. 'Geez, we might blow up the whole planet,' I thought, 'but it's still wonderful.'"
In the 1940s, he was a member of N3F and chaired the club's long-range planning committee. He was a member of First Fandom, starting his fanac in 1938, and was elected to the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 2013.
He passed away on October 22, 2016, at the age of 100, putting him on the list of Most Senior Fans. (He is not close to being the longest in fandom, but is certainly high on the list of longest-lived people who were once active fans.) He told friends that he attributed his longevity, in part, to having Shredded Wheat for breakfast every morning.
- Tributes in the November, 2016 issue of The National Fantasy Fan Volume 75, Number 11 and Scientifiction: The First Fandom Report (New Series #50, 4th Quarter, 2016).
- Obituary in File 770.
- Beyond (with Roscoe E. Wright)
- Fan-Tods
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 1898 — Noreascon 3 (with the Stranger Club)
- 2013 — First Fandom Hall of Fame
| Person | 1916—2016 |
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