Jeff Canfield

Long-time fan Jeff Canfield died April 9 at the age of 55.

Canfield became a well-known Northern California con runner in the 1990s. He chaired Sacramento’s unsuccessful bid for the 1991 Westercon, in the process drawing Kevin Standlee into convention running — surely a fanhistorical contribution in its own right.

Canfield, Standlee and other members of the Sacramento Westercon bid were soon recruited onto the San Francisco in 1993 Worldcon bid committee. This time they were victorious and Canfield served as one of ConFrancisco’s deputy vice chairs.

It is also believed he produced the ConFrancisco Souvenir Book, based on this bit of detective work by the editors of the Internet Science Fiction Data Base:

There is not a title page per se. The title is taken from the copyright statement. The editor is listed as “Dr. Evil” in convention staff list. Jeff Canfield is listed as the “Speaker to Doctor Evil” and thus is assumed to be the name behind the pseudonym.

Besides sf, his other activities included Formula Vee racing and photography. He drove a Formula Vee Viper race car and was an integral member of the San Francisco region of the Sports Car Club of America. He founded Jeff Canfield Photography.

Professionally, Canfield worked as a System Software Specialist at State Compensation Insurance Fund for 25 years.

A memorial is being planned in June. People are invited to make donations in his name to the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, CA.

The obituary that originally ran in the Sacramento Bee can be read here.