# Jerry Pournelle has died. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853 "2017-09-09T00:21:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/1 "2017-09-09T00:21:24Z")
From his own [website](https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/). 84 years old. I will miss him. He was an author that would often engage with you, either in person or via email. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/2 "2017-09-09T00:24:52Z")
RIP. It was his columns in Byte magazine in the 90’s (yes, I was that much of a nerd) that got me to science fiction, and from there, made me want to be a writer. I knew he had beaten a brain tumor and a stroke, and was up there in years, but would check his website or Wikipedia entry periodically to find he was still going strong. ETA: what struck me about him when I was a teenager was how much of a polymath he was. He was one of those people who makes you wonder just how they get involved in all they’ve been involved in and make all the connections they make. A master’s degree and a Ph.D. in two different subjects, success as both a fiction and nonfiction writer, career moves as diverse as being the Executive Assistant to the Mayor of Los Angeles to co-authoring a respected book on military strategy. How did he do it? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/3 "2017-09-09T00:43:28Z")
Awww man. One of my favorite authors. RIP MR. Pournelle; you done great! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/4 "2017-09-09T00:45:53Z")
Fuck. Jerry was a total asshole, but he was an _honest_ asshole. He owned it and you dealt with him as he was. I treasure our conversations. RIP, Jerry. May JCF welcome you into the Legion. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/5 "2017-09-09T00:51:46Z")
Damn, I only know him from his books and mostly his collaborations. His work with Niven are some of the best books in Science-Fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/6 "2017-09-09T00:57:54Z")
Well, some of them are. They also wrote some real stinkers together. But I’ve always believed in judging an artist by their best work, not by their worst. His death is a loss to science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/7 "2017-09-09T00:58:44Z")
I mostly know him from arguing with him online. Jerry was loud (partly because of hearing issues), opinionated, brash, and someone who debated ideas instead of personalities. We disagreed about a lot of things (especially politics), but he never got nasty or took an honest attempt to challenge his opinion as a personal attack. Never got a chance to meet him; he was west coast and I’m east coast. He was a wealth of information about SFWA and the various controversies in its history (his explanation about the Stanislaw Lem brouhaha showed it wasn’t what people believe). Everyone who knew him online respected him. He is a big loss to the field. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/8 "2017-09-09T01:07:47Z")
I think that he disagreed with _everyone_ about politics. Including, probably, himself. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/9 "2017-09-09T01:52:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think that he disagreed with _everyone_ about politics. Including, probably, himself. Jerry had a very strong, conservative point of view. But he never demonized liberals. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/10 "2017-09-09T02:09:16Z")
I knew Jerry from his earliest _Byte_ articles (ca. 1970’s?), not from his SciFi writings. Always a good read, often about subjects I, too, was wrestling with in compu-land. The site referenced by the OP has a posting supposedly by Jerry only a day ago. Interesting post. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/11 "2017-09-09T02:14:28Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Fuck. > > Jerry was a total asshole, but he was an _honest_ asshole. He owned it and you dealt with him as he was. I treasure our conversations. > > RIP, Jerry. May JCF welcome you into the Legion. Gotta agree. I am among the many people who have been Pournelled…and yet, 20 minutes later, he smiled, called me by name, and was cheerful and friendly. He was like proverbial Irish weather: changeable! And, doggone, that puppy could write. He had a remarkable degree of real empathy in his stories. He could deliver characterization that was believable and rich and very real. He could also write hellacious battle scenes. He was a big contributor to the literature of science fiction. There were giants in those days. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/12 "2017-09-09T03:06:59Z")
Sorry to hear that. I liked the few of his books I read. Like many others, I had some minor online interaction: I defended Richard Dawkins against some comments he made. He was wrong about Dawkins, but he responded respectfully so for that I give him credit. Fellow curmudgeons could learn a lot from his example. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/13 "2017-09-09T03:29:53Z")
I used to (past 5 years) visit his site regularly. Emailed him once and he did reply somewhat brusquely (he actually apologized later) Brian ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/14 "2017-09-09T03:48:53Z")
As much as I disagreed with his politics, I did enjoy a number of his books and collaborative works. And his column in _Byte_ was generally entertaining and interesting. Well, at least 84 is a pretty good run. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/15 "2017-09-09T04:03:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, some of them are. They also wrote some real stinkers together. But I’ve always believed in judging an artist by their best work, not by their worst. His death is a loss to science fiction. I loved everyone that I read. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/16 "2017-09-09T05:13:57Z")
John Scalzi wrote a nice obit: [RIP, Jerry Pournelle | Whatever](https://whatever.scalzi.com/2017/09/08/rip-jerry-pournelle/) While I had a hard time getting around his politics nor am I a huge fan of the military SF sub-genre, when he teamed up with Larry Niven, it was usually always good. They complemented each other nicely. The Mote in God’s Eye, Footfall, Lucifer’s Hammer are easily in my top twenty. I enjoyed his columns in Byte. During the 80s an d 90s when I wa designing computer systems, he always helped to keep me focused on the end-user. He was also just fun to read, an intimate style–blogging actually, before blogging was a thing–reminiscent of Asimov’s style in his non-fiction. So, life well lived, dear sir. You will be missed. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/17 "2017-09-09T05:40:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, some of them are. They also wrote some real stinkers together. But I’ve always believed in judging an artist by their best work, not by their worst. His death is a loss to science fiction. I guess I had the bad luck to read a stinker. I can’t even remember the title, but I bought a book based on Larry Niven’s name on the cover, and it sucked, so I resolved not to read any more of his collaborations with Pournelle. I also read Byte magazine in the 80’s, and was underwhelmed by his column, which mainly seemed to be “tried this, no joy, tried that, no joy, tried the other, joy,” about his attempts to get computer products he got for free to work. In reading the other posts in this thread, I see that he must have been better than I gave him credit for. I hope people will recommend his best stuff, and I’ll give him another try. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/18 "2017-09-09T10:49:59Z")
The first signing I ever went to was for the UK edition of _The Mote in God’s Eye_ back in 1976… Niven wasn’t there, only Jerry, and my recollection now is basically of a large, brash American! I had resisted buying a US copy of the book but got a copy of it at the signing. But it disappeared long ago… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/19 "2017-09-09T10:52:59Z")
Despite his age, this must have been a little sudden–he was at DragonCon 6 days ago (or was at least present as a presenter for the Dragon Awards.) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853/20 "2017-09-09T11:38:10Z")
Looking at Chaos Manner now. I see that he was posting as recently as 2 days ago. His last message to the world? [Trump apologetics](https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/dreamers/). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-pournelle-has-died/795853.md?page=2)