In Memoriam – Dean Ing

Dean Ing (b.1931) died on June 21. Ing published his first two stories in the 1950s. In the 1970s, he published several short stories and his first novel, Soft Targets.  In 1979, his novelette “Devil You Don’t Know” was nominated for the Nebula and Hugo Award.

Additional novels, such as Anasazi and Single Combat followed and after the death of Mack Reynolds, Ing completed five of his manuscripts, which were published between 1984 and 1986. Ing published his last novel, Butcher Bird, in 1993, but a collection of his short stories, The Rackham Files, appeared in 2004.

In addition to his fiction, Ing published numerous non-fiction and speculative essays in various anthologies dealing with military matters and drawing on his experience as a veteran of the United States Air Force. He held a doctorate in communications theory from the University of Oregon.  Ing was concerned about the collapse of civilization and wrote articles on survivalism, choosing to live in a small town because he felt that small town residents would survival the collapse better than people in larger cities.