Eric Layman passes on

A fixture of Toronto SF fandom, and a mainstay of the science-fiction club U.S.S. Hudson Bay, Eric Layman passed away recently. A poet and a thinker, Eric could be cantankerous, but he was always courtly toward my mother, who sometimes attended meetings of that same club. He won an Aurora Award in 2004 for his fan writing.

Eric was born in December 1943 in New Westminster, British Columbia, and died April 27, 2008, in Toronto, unexpectedly, after a brief bout of pneumonia. A bio of him, published in 2000 in the club newsletter, is here.

The last time I saw him was at the Hudson Bay meeting on April 12, 2008, a special filk-concert meeting he'd organized for the club. The photo of Eric above was taken by me at a party at my place on January 14, 2006.

Eric was intelligent and talented and passionate, and my friend. He's already missed.

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