Thomas N. Scortia
Thomas N. Scortia was an American author and chemist born in 1926 in Alton, Illinois. Initially pursuing a career in scientific research, he attended Michigan State College before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he completed his education at Washington University, earning a bachelor's degree in 1949. Scortia worked in various chemical and research roles, including a senior chemist position and leadership at the Propellex Chemical Division of Chromalloy-American Corporation.
In the 1970s, following a downturn in the aerospace industry, he pivoted to writing full-time, leveraging his scientific background to craft disaster novels. His most notable work, co-authored with Frank M. Robinson, was "The Glass Inferno," which inspired the film "The Towering Inferno." Throughout his career, Scortia wrote under several pseudonyms and produced multiple bestsellers. He remained active in various professional organizations until his death from leukemia in 1986, leaving a lasting impact on the genre of disaster fiction.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Thomas N. Scortia
Writer
- Born: August 29, 1926
- Birthplace: Alton, Illinois
- Died: April 29, 1986
- Place of death: La Verne, California
Biography
Author Thomas N. Scortia, the son of Thomas Nicholas Scortia and Estella Lee (Byerley) Scortia, was born in Alton, Illinois, in 1926. He embarked on his college studies and early career intending to focus on scientific research. He enrolled at the Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science, which later became Michigan State University, in 1944, but his college studies were interrupted by World War II. During the war he served as a member of the U.S. Army infantry from 1944 to 1946. He resumed his education at Washington University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1949, pursuing further studies in 1950.
Between 1951 and 1953, Scortia served in the Chemical Corps, afterward becoming a senior chemist for three years at the Union Starch and Refining Company in Granite City, Illinois. He was director of research and development for the Propellex Chemical Division of Chromalloy-American Corporation in Edwardsville, Illinois, from 1953 until 1960, the same year he entered into an eight-year marriage with Irene Baron. After a brief stint with a North Carolina company, Scortia began accepted a job with United Aircraft Corporation in Sunnyvale, California, where his work focused on creating solid-state fuel for rockets.
Scortia had been casually writing science-fiction stories, mostly for his own amusement, for more than a decade when the aerospace industry’s slump in 1970 prompted him to try writing as a career. The attempt succeeded, and writing was his sole occupation for eight years. In 1974 he and Frank M. Robinson coauthored Scortia’s best-known book, The Glass Inferno, which was adapted as the film The Towering Inferno the same year. The film rights to two subsequent books by Scortia and Robinson, The Prometheus Crisis (1976) and The Gold Crew (1979), were also purchased.
With his degrees and work experience in chemistry and biochemistry, Scortia was well equipped to write the disaster novels, screenplays, and stories that he enjoyed creating. For the last eight years of his life, Scortia was president of Gebo Productions, Inc., a position he assumed in 1978, the same year he adopted son Nicholas Joakim Julin. Six of Scortia’s books had become best-sellers by the time he died from leukemia in 1986.
A frequent conference speaker, Scortia also wrote under the names Scott Nichols, Artur R. Kurz, and Gerald McDow. He was a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Science Fiction Writers of America, the Authors Guild, the Authors League of America, and the Writers Guild West.