Stef (Steven) Schwartz

2 July 2025

It's been a hard year for our FOGcon community. In March, we lost Guy Thomas, former chair of two FOGcons and long-term attendee. And now in July, we lost Stef (Steven) Schwartz, a crucial member of FOGcon, who was deeply involved in our programming and twice was chair of FOGcon. They are greatly missed.

This eulogy is from Cliff Winnig, a dear friend of Stef, and also a regular member of FOGcon.

"On the morning of July 2nd, the world lost Stef (Steven) Schwartz and has become a colder place indeed.

"Stef and I met at the University of Chicago in the fall of 1989 and quickly became friends. They were for a time my best friend in all the world, and though time and circumstances brought us in and out of regular contact over the years, that fact remains.

"We did theater together, wrote together, and supported one another in writing. Stef attended the Clarion science fiction writing workshop, told me all about it, and encouraged me to go, which changed my life forever and for the better.

"Stef wrote and sold SF and fantasy fiction, loved well-reasoned debate—they created multiple successful iterations of the Argument Panel—and over time volunteered on, ran programming for, and chaired FOGcon.

"They were one of the Four Jewish Sysadmins of the Apocalypse, and they were no small part of the reason that a seder I co-hosted was so energetic that it became known forever afterwards as the Klingon Seder.

"Anyone who knew Stef could tell you they were absurdly full of life, radiating an energy that filled any space they were in. They were creative, rambunctious, and serious all at once. They cannot be summed up.

"And they left us far too soon, after a cancer we had thought was at least containable proved to be nothing of the sort. Navigating a post-Stef world feels strange and surreal, and more than a little hollow.

"They can be seen and heard on YouTube, as one of the periodically returning guests on the B Cubed Sunday Morning podcast, which I host on third Sundays.

"Their fiction, published under the Steven Schwartz byline, is worth seeking out. Whenever I reread it, I hear Stef’s voice in my head."

Farewell, Stef. Your memory stays with us.

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