RIP Peter Weston, a.k.a. The Hugo Rocket Man

Today we learned of the death of Peter Weston, fan, Worldcon chair, Worldcon guest of honor, editor, writer, and of particular importance to the Hugo Awards, owner of a custom auto parts foundry in the 1980s, which led to him offering to make a mold for casting the Hugo Award trophy rockets. Every metal Hugo rocket since 1984 (normally chrome-plated zinc, but twice gold-plated) has been cast from the one mold held at the foundry, which Weston later sold upon retirement. (There have been non-metallic Hugo Rockets, but they reproduce the design.)

Pete was a nice person who I only met a few times, but I can say that fandom is diminished by his departure. However, every Hugo Award preserves his legacy, which was written in to the WSFS Constitution when we credited his specific implementation of the original McKnight/Jason design as the definitive version.