Hugh Daniel Passes Away

Bay Area fan Hugh Daniel passed away June 3 from an apparent heart attack.

He was once part of Ann Arbor’s Stilyagi Air Corps, and later active in the Bay Area where his claims to fame included hosting the “Mr. Destructo” panel at conventions, tearing apart an old color TV set or an old computer disk drive.

Also, reports SF Site News:

He worked on Project Xanadu, the first hypertext and helped set up the WELL. His interest in spaceflight led him to briefly work for Starstruck, which built three rockets and successfully launched one suborbitally.

Daniel was the fan guest of honor at Windycon 38 in 2011. Here is the excellent tribute Bill Higgins wrote about his friend for the program book.

I had a sense that Hugh had lassoed the future, and was trying to tug it closer to the present.  Maybe, I like to think, it arrived a little bit ahead of schedule because Hugh was pulling so hard.

Update 06/04/2013: Corrected a ridiculous typo (Hugo?) and added link to Higgins’ essay.

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