Weird Tales

Weird Tales sorrowfully reports the passing of editor emeritus George H. Scithers, our longtime teacher and friend.

George passed away April 19 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, from complications following a heart attack suffered the morning of April 17. He was 80. He had been in declining health for the last few years, due to complications from diabetes and a heart condition. He is survived by a number of cousins.

George was honored with four Science Fiction Achievement Awards (a.k.a. the “Hugo Awards” bestowed annually by the World Science Fiction Convention): twice for his editorship of the fanzine Amra and twice for his editorship of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. He also received the World Fantasy Award for his work at Weird Tales.

George Scithers’s ashes were buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, June 2.  The military ceremony included a twent-one-gun salute and a color guard who formally folded the flag and presented it to  Larry Fiege, George’s life companion. A West Point graduate who served in the Signal Corps for twenty-one years, George served in the Korean War.

Personal condolences may be sent to Larry Fiege, 218 Blandford St., Rockville, MD 20850-2629. Remembrances of George’s life in the SF community may be sent to letters@weirdtales.net.

All of us at Weird Tales wish a very happy 80th birthday to our editor emeritus, George H. Scithers!

You’d think our favorite engineer-turned-editor — not to mention our wise mentor and good friend — would at least consider relaxing a little. After all, in the ’60s he won Hugos for his fanzine Amra and introduced the tradition of the modern Worldcon Masquerade; in the ’70s he won a couple more Hugos as the founding editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine; in the ’80s he took the helm at Amazing Stories; and in the ’90s he shared a World Fantasy Award with Darrell Schweitzer for relaunching Weird Tales. But George has kept the red pen close at hand through the 21st century thus far; his second Cat Tales feline fantasy anthology is forthcoming soon from Wildside Press.

George has been a bit under the weather lately, and his local sf convention (Capclave, in the D.C. suburbs) is likely to be the only con he gets out to this year — so we suspect any birthday greetings you’d like to send him at gscithers(AT)wildsidepress(DOT)com would be particularly appreciated!