Rich Lynch

(December 4, 1949 – )

Nicki and Dick Lynch with their first Hugo Award at Magicon, 1992. Photo by Roger Weddall.

Richard “Rich” Lynch, a fanzine fan, apahack, club fan and fanhistorian, started his fan career in Chattanooga, TN, before moving to the Washington, D.C., area. He and his wife, Nicki Lynch, published the Hugo-winning fanhistory-oriented fanzine Mimosa, and previously, CHAT. The couple is collectively nicknamed The Lynchii.

He chaired Chattacon V (1980) and has been a member of the WSFA, Southern Fandom Confederation and the Chattanooga Science Fiction Association (where he chaired Chattacon 5), and belonged to SFPA, FHAPA, LASFAPA and The Cult (of which he was OA). He was a Rotsler Award judge 1998–2002.

A fanhistorian, he did extensive research toward a history of the 1960s, which has so far appeared only as a set of notes, many of which have been incorporated into Fancyclopedia 3. He was a member of the Timebinders and attended the first FanHistoriCon.

Until about 1999, Rich was generally known as Dick Lynch. Perhaps because both couples then published popular mimeographed fanzines, there was a certain amount of fannish confusion between Dick & Nicki Lynch and Dick & Leah Smith, to the extent that each sometimes received locs intended for the other couple’s zine. Lynch has never said what prompted his change of nicknames, but the switch prompted the Smiths to print a gently twitting Widowers verse in STET 9:

             Richard Lynch has lost his name
             Why he did so we haven't a clue
    You won't lose your Dick if you always stick with
                 WIDOWERS WONDERFUL GLUE

In mundane life, Rich is a retired U.S. Department of Energy employee who worked as an international activities advisor specializing in carbon capture and storage technologies.

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Back to the Bay [1981]
• CHAT [late ’70s] (with Nicki Lynch)
• Mimosa [1982–2003] (with Nicki Lynch)
• My Back Pages
• This is Not a Minaczine (for SFPA)
• Variations on a Theme [2000s] (for SFPA)

Awards, Honors and GoHships:
Mimosa won six Best Fanzine Hugos (in 1992–94, 1997–98 and 2003) and was nominated a total of 14 times (1991–2004).

• 1980 -- Roc*Kon 5 (with Nicki Lynch)
• 1981 -- Rebel Award (with Nicki Lynch)
• 1986 -- Rivercon XI (with Nicki Lynch)
• 1990 -- Chattacon XV, Sci-Con 12 (with Nicki Lynch)
• 1999 -- Conucopia (with Nicki Lynch)
• 2002 -- DeepSouthCon 40 (with Nicki Lynch)

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Person

1949—

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