|
David Clark begins his fannish biography with his entrance to the University of Oregon in 1970, where his pleasure reading was mostly Lovecraft and Howard -- and too many comic books. He attended his first convention while in college: while visiting home he saw Jerry Jacks on Creature Features talking about Westercon 26 in San Francisco. At Westercon 26, David found the Masquerade, the Star Trek Blooper reel, and a current printing of the Necronomicon. He learned about parties at subsequent conventions.
After college, he began working at Alameda First National Bank, where, after 20 years of working his way up through banking administration, he finds that his co-workers are still easily confused by fannish activities.
David liked to take pictures at cons, and he liked to share his pictures; this led to LOCUS magazine, which, in about 1979, began publishing his photos of con life, especially the masquerades.
David helped out on BayCon '82, and by 1985 he was a co-chair. He was also in charge of invitations that year and, with the ABA also in San Francisco that weekend, sent invitations to authors such as Gore Vidal and John Jakes -- with, alas, minimal response. That was also the year he looked long and hard at a copy of the LASFS Directory and was inspired to start the San Francisco Bay Area Fan Directory. Around the mid-point of the decade, David also began producing science fiction fortune cookies, first for BayCon and later for WorldCon bids and parties.
The ConFrancisco/WorldCon '93 bid beckoned to David in 1987, and he could not resist its pull. In 1991 he was bumped from Hotel Liaison for the convention to Chairman after ConFrancisco lost its second chairman; friends and associates became concerned for David's health.
He remained healthy, and ConFrancisco was successful. Not one to rest on his laurels, David began the push for an "Alcatraz in 1999" bid. In 1995 he supplied "The Scottish Convention" shirts to Intersection/WorldCon '95. And in 1996, he held a bid party at L.A.Con III/Worldcon; the Alcatraz bid barely lost to Australia, eight hundred plus to nineteen.
David remains up-beat and positive in the face of this defeat. He reports that he still makes the fortune cookies. And he's still reading way too many comic books. |
