Last night I had dinner with my dear brother, Paul Cote (left), out from the Boston suburbs to attend Gen Con 2016 which has taken over Indy at 60,000 gamers strong this year. Paul is here kindness of Mike Carr (center), the only man who has attended every Gen Con since the first one back in 1968 hosted by Gary Gygax of Dungeons and Dragons fame. Paul introduced me to Mike last night and we had dinner together. Interesting conversation made for a good evening, and much of the conversation had to do with Dungeons and Dragons, TSR, and their friend, the late Gary Gygax.
Back in 1968, Gary invited forty or so of his friends to come to Lake Geneva and play games for a couple days. Two of those friends were Paul Cote and Mike Carr, who have kept up their friendship ever since. Paul and Mike told me at the first Gen Con Gary's wife served them hot dogs. The convention was named for...
its location, Lake Geneva, with an allusion to the Geneva Convention on Human Rights.
After working as a VP at Gygax's TSR, Mike moved on to commodities trading. How it all went down was quite interesting. Mike is pretty well-known among wargamers. He created several games of his own, including Fight in the Skies, Dawn Patrol, and Don't Give up the Ship! I was sorry to admit to Mike that, since Paul and I met back in 1974 when we both were at Northern Illinois University, I've had many opportunities to join Paul in playing Dungeons and Dragons. After a couple abortive efforts, though, I was done. Never enjoyed it, sorry to say.
Tim serves Clearnote Church, Bloomington, Indiana. He and Mary Lee have five children and big lots of grandchildren.
Want to get in touch? Send Tim an email!
