St. Louis fan John Brooks died on March 15 while in the hospital with a heart valve infection. Ken Keller wrote for Chronicles of the Dawn Patrol:

“I’d guesstimate he was in his mid-to-late fifties… John and I shared a mutual love and interest in aviation (he was retired from McDonnell-Douglas in St. Louis), in science fiction & SF fandom, as well as in scale modeling. When Terry and I moved to St. Louis in early 1991 for nearly seven years, it was John who introduced me into the local Gateway Chapter of the International Plastic Modeler’s Society, of which he had been a founding member. He and I both worked on the 1991 IPMS National Convention (scale modeling’s Worldcon) in St. Louis that summer. But I actually first met John just prior to the very first Archon waaay back in summer of 1977. He was part of the revived and reborn (and very eager) St. Louis fandom that had emerged following its exposure to Kansas City’s 1976 Worldcon, MidAmeriCon. He was one of St. Louis fandom’s movers-and shakers in that era and during the ’80s. He was a past chair of Archon and years later served as its Fan Guest of Honor.

“Unfortunately, I lost contact with John after we moved back to Kansas City in the fall of 1997. But during the last Archon Terry and I attended back in ’98,  John and I did have a chance to get caught up on All The Latest. Those memories will now have to be my last of him, sad to say.”

David Klaus adds, “His younger brothers Michael and David Brooks were also active in the local club as well.”

[Via Chronicles of the Dawn Patrol and David Klaus.]