Walt Dunkelberger
(March 4, 1913 – May 19, 1962)
Benjamin Walter Dunkelberger, Jr., called Walt and Dunk, was an important early fan from Fargo, North Dakota. He attended the Little Chicon during World War II, was an editor of FANEWS[CARD] and was named one of the Turgid Triplets due to his clunky writing style. He belonged to FAPA and VAPA.
He was president of the N3F in the mid-1940s. He held other positions in the club also, including editor of Bonfire. F. T. Laney pubbed a one-shot, Facts in the Case of W. Dunkelberger, in 1946.
He is believed to have been one of the models for fan Joe Doppelberg in Fredric Brown’s 1949 novel What Mad Universe. In the story, the protagonist, a science fiction editor, has been trapped in the sort of universe that only an especially annoying fan would dream up.
Walt married Lorraine Marian Hendrickson on July 2, 1935. Their son Jack died in infancy; they had at least six more children by 1950: Jacqueline, Jeraldine, James, Jon, Jo, and Judith. Dunk had largely gafiated by then.
- “Walter Dunkelberger as a Fortean” by Joshua BluBuhs, From an Oblique Angle, September 15, 2014.
- Photograph on page 177 of Harry Warner, Jr.'s All Our Yesterdays.
- Find a Grave.
- Bonfire (some issues)
- FANEWS[CARD]
- Introducing 'Dunk--'
- Mag Without a Name [1945]
- Nuz from Home [1943]
| Person | 1913—1962 |
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