Name: OLIVER, Symmes Chadwick Aged: 65
Born: March 30, 1928 Where: Cincinnati, Ohio
Died: August 9, 1993 Where: Austin, Texas
Interred: _ _ _
Married: Betty Jane Jenkins When: November 1, 1952
Western genre Award: 1967 Spur Award for The Wolf is My Brother

Oliver lived in Texas almost all of his adult life. He attended the University of Texas for bachelor and master degrees in English and Anthropology in 1951 & 1952, but obtained his doctorate in Anthropology at UCLA in 1961. He returned to Texas University as a Professor of Anthropology and there he remained is several capacities until his death.

From a science fiction perspective, Oliver may have seemed an occasional writer; but like most of the sf writers, Chad worked in other fields, notably westerns, and was also busy with his education and teaching career. While studying at UCLA, Chad became a member of "The Group," a local gathering of partying sf writers that included Charles Beaumont & William F. Nolan. However, and arguably, Oliver was probably the premier sf short story writer among them in the 1950s, which is to take nothing away from Charles Beaumont who was moving into screenplays.

Oliver was a personable but complex man and his interests were wide ranging. He was a traditional jazz pianist, and his short story "Didn't He Ramble" is my all time favorite. Oliver was an expert on the American Plains Indian and that knowledge served him well when he wrote in the western field. One of Chad's hobbies was fly fishing for trout, which required a certain insanity in the Guadalupe River of central Texas...but Oliver spent his later summers fishing and writing at Lake City, Colorado.

A scholarship fund has been set up at the University of Texas to honor Professor Oliver as well as an annual teaching award for professors. And currently, one of Chad's acclaimed novels, Winds of Time, has been reprinted by White Wolf Publishing.

BIOGRAPHY: Science Fiction Writers, Scribners, 1982 and the Cushing Library at Texas A & M, Tapes and Transcript ions Div., has "long interviews with the SF writer, Chad Oliver."

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.

OBITUARY: University of Texas "In Memorium"

Send relevant email to George C. Willick