Bob Booth (1947-2013)

Writer, editor, and convention organizer Bob Booth, 66, died September 6, 2013 of cancer in a Rhode Island hospice.

Booth helped found the World Fantasy Convention in 1975. He sat on the World Fantasy board of directors until 1990, served as chairman in 1979, program director in 1986, and on the award jury in 1983. In 1993 he helped run the World Horror Convention. Booth co-founded the Northeastern Writers’ Conference — better known as Necon — with his wife Mary in 1980, and edited The Big Book of Necon (2009). As Robert A. Booth he published several works of short fiction  in the ’80s and ’90s.

Booth was born 1947 in Pawtucket RI, and served in the Air Force in Vietnam. He worked as director of publications at Providence College for more than two decades, retiring in 2010. Booth was diagnosed with stage four lung and liver cancer in January 2013. He is survived by his wife, their two children, a grandchild, and two step-grandchildren.