Lewis Grant, Jr.

(1922 - July 12, 1968)

Lewis J. “Lewie” Grant, Jr., a Chicago fan active in the 1950s and ’60s, was a member of the Chicago Rocket Society and Tuesday Night Group, and attended George Price’s monthly parties. He was involved with the Chicago: 1959 Worldcon bid. He contributed to such fanzines as Yandro. He was an avid punster.

In the Windycon 3 program book, Price eulogized:

Lewis Grant was one of the very few people I have known who could rightly be called a “Renaissance Man,” intellectually if not physically. Wherever a conversation might turn — science and technology, science fiction, politics and public affairs — he would nearly always be well-informed and full of fascinating opinions. Those who came to know Lewie were usually surprised to discover that he did not have an advanced degree, or indeed any degree at all. That he was largely self-educated may even by why he never fell into the trap of becoming a narrow specialist. Nor was his encyclopedic knowledge merely a collection of miscellaneous tidbits: he had a very strong sense of the interrelatedness of everything, and could draw together facts from widely scattered fields and integrate them in surprising ways. It may have been his philosophic sense of the wholeness of knowledge and life that enabled him to cheerfully endure the physical defects that eventually took him from us. He always faced life with a smile and a joke — he was famous for atrocious puns at which we groaned more in envy than in pain. Lewie’s life was short, but he put more into it, of accomplishment, friendship, and human decency, than most of us put into twice the time.

In 1974, the Lewis Grant, Jr. Memorial Award was named in his honor for the fan-voted best in show award at Windycon's art show.

Grant died of a heart attack following a bronchial attack at the 1968 Wilcon. Locus reported:

The Stopa’s annual Wilcon (July 12-14) turned into a wake. Chicago fan Lewis Grant suffered a bronchial attack late Friday night. A doctor was summoned and gave him something to ease the attack but on Saturday morning he collapsed with a coronary attack. He died In the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Lew was 36 years old. He was one of the first blue babies to have the corrective operation and donated his body to science. Lew was a member of many organizations such as MENSA and the American Rocket Society. He was mainly known in fandom as a convention goer and punster. He was employed as a chemist. About twenty people had turned up for the Wilcon. Among* them were Ed and Joanne Wood, the Becks, Adrienne Hicks, and George Price. The turnout for the Wilcon would probably have been considerably higher but Joni Stopa phoned the news of Lew’s death around and most of those who hadn’t already arrived did not show up. It’s been a very bad year for fandom.

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Person

1922—1968

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