Mike Sinclair

Mike Sinclair at Midwestcon 2008. Photo by Mark Olson

(May 4, 1938 – March 14, 2014)

Michael McLeod Sinclair (also known as the Commodore, for his onetime Coast Guard service), a genial Louisville fan, found fandom at Rivercon 1 in 1975. After he wrote a loc to File 770, he was contacted by Cliff Amos and recruited to work on Rivercon. He was a member of the CFG.

A decade later, he became the public face of the New Orleans in '88 Worldcon bid committee, tirelessly traveling the country throwing extraordinary parties, dispensing Southern charm and New Orleans Hurricanes. His parties were enormously popular and undoubtedly were the main factor in the New Orleans bid winning against strong opposition. Many in fandom assumed that he would also be working on Nolacon II, but Sinclair had never had any intention of taking any significant role in the resulting Worldcon. Ever since, when a bid throws especially great parties, fans have taken care to ask if the people throwing the parties will also be working on the convention!

While he was not interested running a Worldcon, he discovered that he loved bidding for Worldcons, and started the Say Da to Moscow bid with his wife, Christa Sinclair, allegedly to bring the Worldcon to the USSR. The bid was funny and the parties great.

Sinclair was born in New Orleans and educated at Clemson University, Bellarmine College and the University of Delaware. He received a Master's of Education from the University of Kentucky. In mundania, he was a schoolteacher. He married Christa Cook, 25 years his junior, in 1987. They had one fanspring, Alexander.

Mike was a Kentucky Colonel and used his position to bestow that honor on many fans and pros during Rivercons.

• “The Commodore's Ramblings,” The Thunder Child.
• Obituary, File 770, March 19, 2014.
• Obituary, (Louisville) Courier-Journal, March 23, 2014.

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Person

1938—2014

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