Paul Freehafer
(July 16, 1916 – March 25, 1944)
Paul Robinson Freehafer was an early fan, originally from Idaho, who moved to Los Angeles to attend Cal Tech and remained their the rest of his short life. He started reading sf in 1931 and found fandom in late 1932 when he subscribed to Science Fiction Digest.
He was an important early LASFAn, joining the SFL on September 16, 1937, and becoming director of the club in 1943. A LASFS Clubhouse building is named "Freehafer Hall" and LASFS annually awards the Evans-Freehafer Trophy.
He seems to have been a rarity at the time, a politically uninvolved, sensible fan. He is described as having resisted "Technocracy, socialism, communism, atheism, Esperanto, simplified spelling and what have you..."
He was editor of the fanzine Polaris (1939–1941). He also had letters published in Amazing and Weird Tales. He published The Letters of Henry S. Whitehead for FAPA.
Paul returned to Idaho where he died of a heart condition at the age of 27.
- FindAGrave
- In 1944, after his death, Forrest J Ackerman published the tributezine Polaris: Paul Freehafer, The Good Die Young.
- His photo appears twice in Harry Warner's All Our Yesterdays (1969).
- For an early short biography, see Who's Who in Fandom 1940 p6.
| Person | 1916—1944 |
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