William Rickhardt

(March 12, 1939 — September 1978)

From left, Bill Rickhardt, Howard DeVore and Fred Prophet promoting the Detroit in '59 Worldcon bid at Solacon.

Bill Rickhardt (sometimes styled Wm. C. Rickhardt) was a Detroit-area fan active in the 1950s and ’60s. A member of the Misfits, he was involved with the Detention, the 1959 Worldcon. He was a member of FAPA and The Cult. He organized the Bring Berry to Detroit fan fund in 1958.

At some point, he lived in New York and Baltimore. By the early 1960s, he was living with Phyllis Scott in California and working as brakeman on the Southern Pacific, according to Bill Donaho in Habakkuk v.3 #3 (Spring 1994, p. 4). Phyllis used his name, but wasn’t married to him. They had a son together, before parting acrimoniously.

In 1967, his foot was crushed while he was working on the railroad.

He later married Mary Alice Muse and then Sayre Hamilton, both marriages ending in divorce. He had another son with Hamilton and an illegitimate daughter with someone else. He was arrested for drunk driving in August 1978. Rickhardt was a heavy drinker, which, Donaho said, led to his death.

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Dementia Praecox [1957] (with George Young and Burton Beerman)
• Flip
• The Swinging Bore [1958]
• Vertigo [1957]
• Wonderment (for The Cult)

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Person

1939—1978

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