Last last night I read on a mailing list that Hal Clement had died, and I found confirmation of it this morning. Somewhere I have a book of his stories published as 'The Best of Hal Clement'. I probably still have it sitting around in a box someplace. But I really enjoyed his SF. So here's a big thank you going out to him for his work.

Hal Clement Dies

Harry Clement Stubbs, who wrote science fiction as Hal Clement, died in his sleep earlier today, October 29, 2003, at his home in Milton, Massachusetts.

Born in 1922, Clement was a high school school teacher whose fiction gained a reputation as quintessential hard SF -- science fiction firmly based on established physics, chemistry, and astronomy. His novels often depicted highly imagined alien worlds; the most famous was Mission of Gravity, set on a heavy, fast-spinning planet where the force of gravity is several times greater at the poles than at the equator. His last novel, Noise, was published earlier this year. [Locus online]

The SFWA has has a bit more information on him, as does the Wikipedia (updated already amazingly). I may have to pick up his most recent book.