SF collector Chester D. Cuthbert dies

Andrew Porter reports that Chester D. Cuthbert died 20 March 2009 at the age of 96. Cuthbert sold a couple of stories to Hugo Gernsback's Wonder Stories in 1934, but he'll be longest remembered for his collection of more than 60,000 sf books and magazines, which he donated to the University of Alberta in 2007 (see this article). That donation lives on as the Chester D. Cuthbert Collection.

At the time of the donation, Merrill Distad, director of libraries at the University of Alberta, said Cuthbert was "a central figure in the development of science fiction as a literary genre in Canada." There is a Flickr photo set of the collection at the time it was moved here.

Cuthbert is survived by his five children, nine grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. His wife of 63 years, Muriel Winnifred Chapman, died in 2007. A longer obituary is available here.