Gay Haldeman is a long-time SF fan having attended conventions since 1963. Born Mary Gay Potter, she met Joe at age 15 (when he was 17) and he introduced her to science fiction. She helped start the Science Fiction League at the University of Iowa in 1975 and club convention DemiCon, and remains their club “Mommy Emeritus.” Gay Haldeman was active in WSFA and was club secretary from 1966-1971. She shared NESFA’s Skylark Award with Joe in 1996 and won the Worldcon’s Big Heart award in 2011 in Reno.
Outside fandom, she earned a Master’s degree in Spanish Literature from the University of Maryland and another in Linguistics, from the University of Iowa. She taught for many years at MIT’s Writing Center.