Bibliographer and fan Mark Owings died of pancreatic cancer on 30 December 2009. Born in 1945, Owings was one of the founder of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) in 1961.
With Jack Chalker, he published The Revised H.P. Lovecraft Bibliography (1973) and The Index to the Science-Fantasy Publishers (1991). And with Chalker and Ted Pauls, he ran the small press publisher of Croatan House. He also wrote a bibliography of Robert A. Heinlein and The Necronomicon: A Study, and co-wrote James H. Schmitz: A Bibliography (with Janet Kagan), and a couple collections of Lovecraftiana with Irving Binkin.
BSFS will host a memorial service for Owings at the BSFS Building (3310 East Baltimore Street in Baltimore) on Wednesday 6 January, from 5 to 9pm. At the request of Owings’s family, this memorial will replace the traditional viewing. The funeral service will be Friday 8 January at 10AM at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 36th Street and Chestnut Avenue in the Hampden Neighborhood of Baltimore. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Mark Owings Memorial Fund, c/o BSFS, PO Box 686, Baltimore, Maryland 21203.