During the Saturday evening break Chuck Kennedy made two Special Awards on behalf of the Board of Directors for contributions to the Historical Miniature Gaming Hobby and in particular to HMGS SOUTH. The biographical material below was provided by the recipients. PATRICK A. CONDRAY My serious involvement in miniature gaming began in 1949 when I was in the 4th grade. Over the years it became even more serious, and led to membership in the National Capital Military Collectors, Le Sabertache, subscription to Jack Scruby’s Table Top Talk and Don Featherstone’s Wargamer’s Newsletter. In 1967 my regular wargame opponent got me involved in a scheme to publish “The American Wargamers Newsletter” (and presumably become the “American Don Featherstone.”) This led to our publishing The Armchair General of which 18 issues appeared between 1968 and 1972 (now on MAGWEB.) After a partial retirement from wargaming in the middle 1970s I got back into the hobby in time to be invited to the organizational meeting of HMGS at Wally’s Basement during November 1981. I became treasurer, and subsequently director of the first several HMGS (later EAST) conventions, both the Minicon from 1983 that became COLDWARS, and HISTORICON beginning in 1984. In the process I met not only Rudy Scott Nelson, but Joe Brimer, who came to one of our early HMGS conventions and pitched Suncoast Skirmishes. As a result I was a member of the HMGS (EAST) Board of Directors off and on between 1983 and 1995. Over the years I have published two translations of Le Kriegspiel, a French set of wargame rules, two editions of my friend Pierre Foure’s Infantry Colors Under Louis XIV, and The Army of Electoral Saxony During the Thirty Years War by Jean Belaubre. As a result of involvement with Jim Brokaw (designer) and Joe Burgess (production) in 15mm Age of Marlborough figures I became editor and sometime author of 6 Editions Brokaw and 6 Material on the War of the Spanish Succession booklets (translations of a German series edited by August Kuhn.) Several additional booklets including Wargaming the Age of Marlborough and Viva El Cristo Rey (more recent Spanish Civil War) were also produced. Since 1990 I have been producing 20mm Spanish Civil War figures as Historical Products Company. In 1993 I received the third Jack Scruby Memorial Award, the first two having gone to Don Featherstone (1989) and Dick Bryant (1991.) In 1995 before being unceremoniously voted off the EAST Board, and at the urging of Don Featherstone and others we established the HMGS Legion of Honor for a broader based recognition program for lifetime contributions to the hobby. After I retired from the Army (civilian position) in late 1994 my wife and I relocated to west central Florida, and I attended TROPICON 95 and TROPICON 96. Unfortunately my plans to turn around the TROPICON program with the aid of HMGS MIDSOUTH ran afoul of the HMGS SOUTH secession movement. After losing that acrimonious struggle I was gratified that Chuck Kennedy almost immediately invited me to participate in HMGS SOUTH’s convention program. Unfortunately I had offended enough others in the process that he was unable to bring that about. However, over the years I have by degrees been brought into the fold and been able, I hope, to play a constructive role in the HMGS SOUTH program. I am particularly appreciative of this award by the HMGS SOUTH Board of Directors. It formalizes, I hope, the recognition that I’m making a solid contribution to one of the most vital and healthy HMGS Chapters, and that my sometimes intemperate polemics of 1996 have been forgiven. --Patrick A. Condray Back to Rebel Yell No. 26 Table of Contents Back to Rebel Yell List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by HMGS South This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com