Amazing Stories and staff extend their deepest condolences and sympathies to Denise Clemons and the Clemons family upon learning of the passing of Jack Clemons earlier this morning.
Jack was quite the individual and an important addition to the Amazing Stories staff when he came aboard to write about space, science and the science fiction genre.
One of the website’s earliest regular contributors, Jack had previously published a handful of short stories in Amazing and was an enthusiastic supporter of the magazine’s return to publication.
Jack was Amazing Stories’ resident “steely-eyed missile man”, having worked as a flight engineer on both the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. A series of posts on those subjects published by Amazing would eventually become Jack’s biographical account of Apollo in his book Safely To Earth: The Men and Women Who Brought the Astronauts Home, which included his work on the rescue of the Apollo 13 mission.
Jack was a SFWA member and member of the Bay to Ocean Delaware writer’s group. During his time with NASA he worked for TRW Systems Group and was responsible for developing re-entry procedures.
Jack frequently assisted in Amazing’s promotional efforts, including attending the magazine’s debut return at the San Jose Worldcon. His smile was infectious, his enthusiasm unabated and his contributions greatly appreciated and well-received.
A selection of his posts and fiction published on the website can be found here. (A portion of his posts that would become the content of Safely to Earth were removed from the website following a request from his publisher, and we were happy to comply in the interest of seeing that book published. A handful of key episodes have been retained.)
Jack will be sorely missed. We will post additional information here regarding his memorial arrangements when they become available.
We would also like to express our appreciation for the support and care Jack’s wife, Denise, provided Jack during his final years.
Jacks obituary can be found here.
Jack Clemons always had a kind word for everyone, and though I only met him a few times, he was always a delight. I’ll be thinking of him and his family.