Jack C. Haldeman II
Jack C. Haldeman II, born on December 18, 1941, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was a distinguished figure in both the scientific community and the realm of science fiction. An older brother to renowned science fiction writer Joe Haldeman, Jack was affectionately called Jay by those close to him. He pursued higher education at the University of Oklahoma, where he focused on environmental engineering and biology, and later earned a B.S. in life science from Johns Hopkins University. His diverse career spanned various roles, including medical technologist, statistician, and research scientist, where he engaged in significant studies related to the greenhouse effect and whale populations.
Haldeman was also an active participant in the science fiction community, chairing eight conventions and serving as president of the Washington Science Fiction Association. He published more than one hundred short stories, novellas, and ten novels, including his debut novel "Vector Analysis" in 1978. Throughout his life, he collaborated with various authors and contributed to scientific literature. Jack Haldeman's personal life included three marriages, the last to Canadian writer Barbara Delaplace. He passed away from kidney cancer on January 1, 2002, in Gainesville, Florida, leaving behind a legacy that bridges science and literature.
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Jack C. Haldeman II
Writer
- Born: December 18, 1941
- Birthplace: Hopkinsville, Kentucky
- Died: January 1, 2002
- Place of death: Gainesville, Florida
Biography
Jack Carroll Haldeman II was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on December 18, 1941, eleven days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was the older brother of the science fiction writer Joe Haldeman and was known as Jay by his family and friends. The family lived in Washington. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, the family moved to Alaska before returning to Washington.
Haldeman was educated University of Oklahoma, Norman, from 1960 to 1963, where he studied environmental engineering and biology. He became a research assistant at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1963, leaving the post in 1968. From 1968 to 1973, he was a medical technician University of Maryland Hospital. He also worked as a statistician, photographer, and printer’s devil.
In 1973, he was awarded a B.S. degree in life science at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. His scientific career included seven years as a medical technologist; coordinating production of a website and CD-ROMs on agriculture in Florida; parasitology; veterinary medicine as a research scientist; field studies of whales in the Canadian Arctic; and three years as part of a research team investigating the greenhouse effect for the US Department of Agriculture, specializing in Expert Systems and the real-time applications of Artificial Intelligence control systems. Haldeman never completely gave up his scientific work but kept it up as a sideline once his writing career developed.
He was introduced to science fiction by a chance meeting between his brother and a young woman in a bookshop. She was a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association and introduced both Jack and Joe to science fiction fandom. This woman was Alice, whom Jack Haldeman married in 1965. They had a daughter, Lorena.
Haldeman joined the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1971 and served on various committees. He chaired eight science fiction conventions, including the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention in Washington, D.C. He was president of the Washington Science Fiction Association before moving to Gainesville in 1979. Before settling permanently in Gainesville, Haldeman lived variously on a beach, in a swamp, and on a farm in Florida. After his marriage to Alice ended, Haldeman married a woman named Vol in 1975 with whom he collaborated on a novel Spaceways Number Eleven: The Iceworld Connection (1973).
Jack Haldeman’s first novel, Vector Analysis, was published in 1978. In his career, he published more than one hundred short stories and novellas and ten books, collaborating with Jack Dann (writing as John Cleve), Harry Harrison, his wife, Vol (also writing as John Cleve), and his brother, Joe. He also wrote poetry and published articles in scientific journals and poetry in a variety of magazines. He was nominated for a Nebula Award for the story “High Steel,” which he wrote with Jack Dann in 1982. His third wife was Canadian writer Barbara Delaplace, whom he first met at a science-fiction convention in Orlando and married in 1995. Haldeman died of kidney cancer on January 1, 2002, in his adopted town of Gainesville.