Current mood:

bummed

Irv Koch 1947-2005
Irv Koch, known as the Godfather of Southern Fandom, died on Friday, Nov 18, 2005, at the age of 58. He was instrumental in starting major conventions in cities across the Southeast, most notably Chattacon in Chattanooga TN. Given a few particulars, he could sit down and write you a convention budget straight out of his head and be within 1-2% of the actual final numbers.

He seldom liked to chair conventions, recognizing the limitations of his diplomatic skills and preferring to act as the knowledge mine and logistics officer. He gave me my first shove into chairing conventions when he pushed me into the chairmanship of a new Atlanta convention called PhoenixCon in 1985. He was one of the founders of GAFilk, and the unusual budget/income structure for a filk convention made it the only time I was ever able to correctly make him revise his estimates.

He was not an easy man to get along with and often made decisions that made it difficult to work with him (or without him), but his influence on convention fandom in the Southeast was pivotal. There isn't a single con committee for a long-running convention from Alabama to North Carolina that hasn't felt his guiding hand at one time or another.

Get some rest, Irv - you deserve it.

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