Pat Sims

Pat and Roger Sims at Midwestcon 40, 1989. Photo by Mark Olson.

(February 9, 1937 – June 9, 2024)

Pat Sims (née Patricia Oswalt), a Midwestern fan, was involved in fandom beginning in the early 1960s, when she finished grad school and moved to Chicago. Friends introduced her to local fan Ann Dinkleman, and they began sharing an apartment. Ann took Pat to a few meetings of the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club; Pat was recruited to work on registration for Chicon 3, the 1962 Worldcon. Before that, she recalled, “The only science fiction I had ever read was a book I was required to read in college.”

The next summer, Al Lewis, making his way across the country from L.A. on fan visits, stopped in Chicago and convinced the roommates to accompany him to Midwestcon 14. There, Earl Kemp introduced Pat to Roger Sims; they were married just over a year later, on August 16, 1964.

Pat was active in Detroit fandom for many years, then in Cincinnati, where she was a mainstay of the CFG and of Midwestcon. She and Roger later lived near Orlando, FL. She was a member of the Orlando Area Science Fiction Society and served as its vice president.

She co-chaired Ditto V, Ditto 10, Ditto 17, and FanHistoriCon 9, and was part of the Louisville in '94 bidcom. The Simses were DUFF delegates in 1995. They were regulars at Worldcons, Midwestcon and other regionals. She was a member of ANZAPA.

She died after a bout with pneumonia.

• Photo, with Roger Sims, at Noreascon 1, 1971.

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1993 -- Transcendental ConFusion
• 1995 -- DUFF
• 1999 -- Rivercon XXIV
• 2002 -- Big Heart Award
• 2012 -- OASIS 25

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Person

1937—2024

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