Ro Nagey
(March 8, 1953 – July 27, 2020)
Ro Nagey (born Robert Nagey) was a fan who became active in the 1970s and was a principal founder of Ann Arbor’s Stilyagi Air Corps club and the convention ConFusion.
In the early 1970s, Ro was a student in Ann Arbor and worked at the Cloak and Rocket, an sf bookstore there. Ro organized an Ann Arbor room party at Torcon 2 after running into other A2 fans (in those days cons routinely printed your hometown on your badge) and from that founded the Stilyagi Air Corps.
That led to the clubzine Cap'n Ro's Whiz-Bang and ConFusion. Ro chaired A2 Relax Icon; the first ConFusion, ConFusion 13 in 1974; and ConFusion 12 (the second — don't ask) in 1975. Ro was also involved in the first use of the Secret Handgrip of Fandom. A strong, flamboyant and somewhat egocentric personality who did make some genuine contributions to fandom early on, Ro had strong sycofan tendencies.
Among various other jobs (tech writer, improvisational comedian, software developer, marketer, Hawaiian rancher, seller of rides on MiG-29 supersonic fighter jets in Russia, and boar hunt leader), Ro was professionally a juggler who performed under the name of Ro Fields. Ro also performed as Chaos at cons with Stephen Leigh (a Cincinnati-based SF writer) in the Cosmos and Chaos juggling and clowning act. Ro appeared in Faans and several other videos by Larry Tucker.
Ro was married and divorced six times beginning with Lin Lutz in March 1976 (during which Ro took the name Ro Lutz-Nagey), and later, Diane Drutowski. Ultimately, Ro moved to Wales in 2003 to marry a woman named Heather and remained there when the marriage dissolved.
Subsequently, Ro transitioned to become a transgender woman. After several years of health problems, she died of COPD.
The Ro Nagey is a drink consisting of equal parts of diet Vernor's and cheap tequila (the only beverages Ro seemed to have around the house when company came to call).
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 1977 -- FGoH at ConFusion 14
- 1979 -- Toastmaster at E/c2 ConFusion
- 1982 -- Ad Astra II, Contradiction 2
- 1991 -- Contradiction 2
| Person | 1953—2020 |
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