Gary Gygax is dead.

Rikathos reports that Gary Gygax has died. It is a sad day for gamers everywhere. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia about him:

Ernest Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American writer and game designer, best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson, and co-founding the company Tactical Studies Rules with Don Kaye in 1974. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of the role-playing game.^[2]

On March 4th, the Associated Press confirmed reports of Gygax's passing that originally were made by Troll Lord Games, a small role playing game company Gygax had been working with.^[3][4] He had been in poor health, suffering multiple strokes and a near-heart attack.

Gygax was the son of Swiss immigrant Martin Gygax and an American mother. His gaming experiences began at the age of five and six with playing pinochle and chess as well as the usual pretend games of any child that could be likened to live action role-playing together with Jim Rasch as referee/game master, John Rasch and Don Kaye as fellow participants. At about the same time Gygax began educating himself in science fiction novels with Ray Bradbury's The Veldt in Bluebook and Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Conqueror.