Stover, Leon E. 1929-2006

(Leon Eugene Stover)

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born April 9, 1929, in Lewistown, PA; died of complications from diabetes, November 25, 2006, in Chicago, IL. Anthropologist, educator, and author. A former professor of anthropology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Stover was often best remembered for his extensive knowledge of science fiction. He was a 1950 graduate of Western Maryland College and attended Columbia University’s graduate school, earning a Ph.D. in 1962. His academic career started in the 1950s, when he was an instructor at the American Museum of Natural History. An associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges until 1965, he joined the Illinois Institute of Technology faculty in 1966. Here he was made a tenured professor of anthropology in 1974, retiring in 1994. More interesting than his academic career, perhaps, was Stover’s love of science fiction and his friendship with some of the genre’s greatest writers, including Harry Harrison. He also came to personally know Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, and Robert Sheckley, a fact that no doubt came in handy when he taught a science fiction course at IIT. Stover had eclectic interests ranging from Chinese history to Stonehenge to the writings of H.G. Wells. He wrote on all of these subjects, and even collaborated with Harrison on a couple of books, including as coeditor of Apeman, Spaceman: Anthropological Science Fiction (1968) and coauthor of the novel Stonehenge (1972). Fascinated by Wells, Stover edited the six-volume The Annotated H.G. Wells (1995-98) and also published Things to Come: The Annotated H.G. Wells (2006). Among his other books are Stonehenge and the Origins of Western Culture (1978), Harry Harrison (1990), Science Fiction from Wells to Heinlein (2002), and Imperial China and the State Cult of Confucius (2004). A book he had just completed editing at the time of his passing was scheduled for publication in 2007.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, November 27, 2006, Section 1, p. 13.