SciFi Diner Podcast 382 – The Picard Finale and Our Interview with John Tilden, President of the Heinlein Society (A Farpoint 2020 Interview)

John was born in New York and currently resides near Baltimore, Maryland. He first encountered Robert Heinlein’s work as one of the cool books with the “atom” sticker on the spine in the library’s fiction section. After college, he read the uncut Stranger in a Strange Land for the first time and was prompted to go ‘online’ to the new Prodigy network to see if anyone else wanted to discuss Heinlein. He found a simple subject line entitled “Heinlein Forum” and posted a reply. Over twenty years later, the discussion of Heinlein’s work is still a pretty good way to meet interesting people online and in-person.
John works for the federal government as a mid-level IT management professional. He has served on the board of his local community association and is still its webmaster. He spent eight years on the national board of his fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi, and serves as his chapter’s Alumni Association Secretary. He is married with two sons. He enjoys reading and collecting comics when not engaged in volunteer work.
John is a charter and Lifetime member of the Heinlein Society and has volunteered at blood drives and local conventional panels. He was also pleased to attend and help out in a small way with the Heinlein Centennial effort, including a panel presentation about Heinlein Fandom Online that was unfortunately scheduled opposite a Spider Robinson talk. He was an early Membership Services chair of the Society where he was pleased to become acquainted with Mrs. Virginia Heinlein. He was appointed to serve out a term in 2012 as a director and Treasurer of the Society and elected to a three year term beginning in 2014. He was re-elected in 2017. John was chosen by the Board of Directors as the sixth President and Chairman of the Board in 2019.

Scott