His was some of the first SF I read that used satirical humor to comment on society -- present and future.

Think I'll go read "Day Million" -- http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/literature/fiction/science_fiction/Day%20Million%20by%20Frederik%20Pohl.txt

was one of my favorites. Then came "Beyond the Blue Event Horizon", then "HeeChee Rendezvous" . The trilogy was fabulous until
Robinette died-then it got weird.

Rest in peace, and thanks for the great reads.

First in 1993 when I attended the two week writing workshop taught by James Gunn (another master of s-f) at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. I more or less grew up on Fred Pohl's writing, and I simply could not get over being in the same room with him, listening to him critique my writing.

I saw him a year later at my Writer's of the Future workshop, although he didn't seem to remember me. I saw him several more times at other Campbell Conferences.

He was a giant, and I was privileged to know him, however slightly.

Very tall and slender, bad teeth, excellent speaker. The thing I particularly recall of the speech was that the manuscript of Samuel R. Delaney's Babel-17 had just landed on his desk, and he was praising Delaney to the skies.

The Space Merchants is a classic and of course the Heechee saga is a must read. It's great SF and powerful stuff. Pohl was ahead of his time in talking about the importance of health insurance/care. The lack of it was an important motivator in the first book.