Author Tom Clancy died 1 October 2013 after a brief illness. Born 12 April 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland, he became world-famous for his Jack Ryan series of technothriller novels, which launched with The Hunt for Red October in 1985. He was also a part-owner of the Baltimore Ravens football team.

Clancy graduated from Loyola College (now Loyola University) in Baltimore, in 1969 with a degree in English literature. He joined the Army ROTC, but was ineligible to serve due to his nearsightedness. After college, he worked in the insurance industry, and eventually bought his wife’s family agency in 1980. He wrote in his spare time, starting Hunt in 1982.

President Ronald Reagan praised the book as “my kind of yarn,” which greatly boosted sales, and for a time, the publisher (a small non-profit which focuses mostly on history, biography, and professional military education) was overwhelmed by the demand. Clancy soon turned to full-time writing, and shifted publishers to Penguin Putnam. He extended his series of novels through the present into a near- (now alternate) future, focusing mostly on Jack Ryan and John Clark. He also co-wrote and/or allowed his name to be used on several series of novels, including Tom Clancy’s Op-Center, Tom Clancy’s Net Force, Tom Clancy’s Net Force Explorers, and Tom Clancy’s Power Plays.

As a big fan of military hardware, he also co-wrote a series of non-fiction books, including the Guided Tour series and the Study in Command series.

Many video games and several feature films were created based on his novels.

Clancy’s web site lists his books, while his Wikipedia entry lists them in story order with descriptions.

Clancy’s first wife, Wanda Thomas King, was an eye surgeon (like Jack Ryan’s wife), and they had four children during 26 years of marriage. They divorced in 1996, and three years later, Clancy married Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, with whom he had one daughter. They all survive him.

On a personal note, I very much enjoyed his novels, and also remarked on his predictions. While knowing full well that sf authors’ do not see their goal as predicting the future, they are frequently pleased when their occasional prediction comes true. In Clancy’s case, he used a jumbo jet airplane as a weapon, destroying the Capitol Building and most of the government (in Debt of Honor, 1994) and a Soviet political officer named Putin appears in The Hunt for Red October (1985). I was also a bit spooked when former investment banker John Clemens “Jack” Ryan was running for the Senate in 2004. There are other little hints of coming events, some of which we can only hope remain pure fiction.