Tom Ölander (17 August 1945 - 26 August 2002) was one of the main actors to kick-start an active fannish culture in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Jerrman, Toni. "It All Started with Tom Ölander", ''Worldcon 75 Souvenir Book''. 2017. Page 54. He was the prime mover for the second Finnish sf convention King Con in 1989, with the assistance of a boat load of Swedish imports, and regularized the tradition of convention holding by working to institute the biannual

Finncon Finncon is the largest science fiction convention in Finland and, with up to 15,000 participants, one of the largest SF conventions in Europe. Finncon is unique among SF conventions because it has no ticket/membership fee, and is funded primaril ...

tradition.Engholm, Ahrvid
Dödsfall / Utlandet

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

. 2002-11-19. Retrieved 2019-01-24. For these efforts he is domestically known as the "father of Finnish Fandom",Finncon 2010
Finncons through the ages
/ref> and internationally as "Finland's Mr. Science Fiction". In recognition of his significant role in the Finnish science fiction fandom, Ölander was a Guest of Honor of Finncon 1989. Besides his local efforts, often worked behind the scenes, his great passion was bridge-building between far-flung corners of international fandom.Peltonen, Leena.

, Aikakone. Retrieved 2019-01-24. Together with Jari Koponen, Olavi Markkanen and Jyrki Ijäs, he formed the editorial board of the first Finnish nationwide science fiction magazine,

Aikakone Aikakone ( Finnish for time machine) is a Finnish pop music group active from 1995 to 1998 and shortly in 2001 and 2003 as ''Aika''. In 2003, they changed their name back to Aikakone and have since been active on and off. Their debut album ''T� ...

, started in 1981. Ashley, Mike. ''Science Fiction Rebels: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1981 to 1990''. Liverpool University Press, 2016. Page 261.

References

1945 births 2002 deaths Finnish editors Finnish science fiction {{finland-bio-stub