Fred Duarte Jr. Photo by Mark Olson.
The convention-running group ALAMO, Inc., the Alamo Literary Arts Maintenance Organization, debuted the Copperhead Award at Smofcon last weekend.
Fred Duarte, Jr. (1957–2015) is the first winner of the new award, voted to him posthumously by the ALAMO Board of Directors.
The Copperhead Award will be awarded “on an occasional basis to an individual who has made an extraordinary impact on Texas Fandom.”
Fred made an indelible impact on Texas Fandom as a conrunner, a fan, and most importantly as a friend. As a conrunner, Fred had a deep resume. He chaired or co-chaired two World Fantasy Cons (2000, 2006), four Armadillocons (1987, 1988, 1992, 1995), a Westercon (1996), and Smofcon 13 (1995). He ran the WSFS division for LoneStarCon 3 (2013), was vice-chair for LoneStarCon 2 (1997), and headed the “Program ‘Oops’” department for Noreascon 3 (1989).
The Copperhead Award trophy will be designed and cast by Chesley Award-winning sculptor Vincent Villafranca of Wise County, Texas.
[Thanks to Scott Zrubek for the story.]
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What’s the meaning of Copperhead in this context?
James Davis Nicoll, one hopes it’s not the Copperheads I immediately thought of. In fact, the pro-slavery pre-Civil-War activists is the very strongest association that word has for me; it’s actually stronger than the snake. (Probably because I don’t live in a region with copperhead snakes.)
I suspect that it’s the snake moreso than the Civil War-related meaning, though it’s a head-scratcher whatever the meaning is. Regardless, Fred will be missed and is quite deserving of the recognition.
Scott Zrubek adds:
Copperhead is the snake in this instance. Vincent has had several slithering visitors to his workshop area recently and we thought it appropriate to include them in the award as well.. If you take a look at the Sasquan Artist Showcase there’s a little bit of the story:
http://issuu.com/sarafelix7/docs/sasquan_showcase