Walt Dunkelberger

1936 senior portrait from North Dakota Agricultural College

(March 4, 1913 – May 19, 1962)

Walter Dunkelberger (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 TNFF.

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. F. T. Laney pubbed a one-shot, Facts in the Case of W. Dunkelberger, in 1946.

He married Lorraine Dunkelberger in 1935; besides Jack, who died in infancy, they had at least 6 more children by 1950: Jacqueline, Jeraldine, James, Jon, Jo, and Judith.

• Photograph on page 177 of Harry Warner, Jr.'s All Our Yesterdays.
• Find a Grave

Fanzines and Apazines:

• FANEWS[CARD]
• Introducing 'Dunk--'
• Mag Without a Name [1945]
• TNFF (some issues)

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Person

1913—1962

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