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In Memoriam
 
Ernest Gary Gygax
(July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008)
Aged 69 Years
The Empty Chair
Eulogy for a Gamer
There is an empty chair at the table this day.
A hallowed place where a friend once played.
The roll of his dice, my ears long to hear.
Or perhaps it would suffice, if he should suddenly appear.
With character sheet in hand and a bag of Cheeze-doodles to share.
All his friends would stand as he sat in the empty chair.
I hear his voice a-callin’ and it ties my heart in a knot.
For he cries, “Though a comrade has fallen, you must play for those who cannot.”
We conquered worlds on the run, he and I, in the name of fun.
And as others may come and go, I make both both friend and foe.
But what I long for most is our past now long a ghost.
An American writer and game designer, best known for co-creating the
pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson, and
co-founding the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR, Inc.) with Don Kaye in
1974, Gary Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of the role-playing
game.
Gygax died the morning of March 4, 2008, at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
He was in semi-retirement, having almost suffered a heart attack after receiving
incorrect medication to prevent further strokes after those on April 1 and May
4, 2004. He was diagnosed with an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm. Even
while his health failed, gaming remained very much a part of his life. Gygax was
still active in the gaming community and had active Q & A forums on gaming
websites such as Dragonsfoot and EN World.
"I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed
playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody
else." - E. Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax had received several awards related to gaming:
- Strategists Club's "Outstanding Designer & Writer" for the creation of
D&D
- Origin Game Convention's "Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame"
- Origins Award, Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame
Honors (2004)
- Four time winner of Games Day's "Best Games Inventor" (1979–82)
- GenCon 2007 (40th Anniversary), Premiere Guest of Honor
- Gary Gygax was tied with J. R. R. Tolkien for #18 on "GameSpy's 30 Most
Influential People in Gaming" (Gamespy Magazine, March 2002).
- As of March 13, 2003, Gygax was listed under the entry Dungeons and
Dragons in the Oxford English Dictionary.
- A strain of bacteria was named in honor of Gary Gygax, namely "Arthronema
gygaxiana sp nov UTCC393".
- Sync Magazine named Gary Gygax #1 on the list of "The 50 Biggest Nerds
of All Time".
- SFX Magazine listed him as #37 on the list of the "50 Greatest SF
Pioneers".
- In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Gary Gygax as one of The Millennium's
Most Influential Persons "at least in the realm of adventure gaming."
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Related Pages
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J. Andrew Keith
Gary Gygax
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