Ian Travis MacMillan

MacMILLAN--Ian Travis, 67, of Kailua, HI, on December 18th. Born Teaneck, NJ. Survived by daughters Julia (Colorado) and Laura, son-in-law Richard and granddaughter Emma Crago (Hawaii). Preceded in death by wife Susan Bates (November 28, 2008). B.A., Oneonta State, MFA., University of Iowa Writers Workshop 1966. He was an avid tennis player, golfer and spear fisherman. A creative writing professor at the University of Hawaii (UH), he inspired countless students and writers for 43 years, winning a teaching excellence award in 2005 and the University's Distinguished Mentoring Award in 2006. He authored eight novels and six short story collections, one of which won the Associated Writing Programs Award for Short Fiction. Over 100 of his pieces have appeared in publications including Yankee, The Sun, Paris Review, Iowa Review, and Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize, and O. Henry Award volumes. Winner of the 1992 Hawai'i Award for Literature, and the 2007 Elliot Cades Award, recent novels include The Braid, The Red Wind, and Seven Orchids (all set in Hawai'i), and Village of a Million Spirits: A Novel of the Treblinka Uprising, winner of a 2000 PEN U.S.A.-West Fiction Award. Novel The Bone Hook is due out in 2009, and Our People, a short story collection, was published this summer. Recently he was honored with a special double issue in his name by Hawaii Review, a UH literary journal he started in 1973. He taught his children that the meaning of life is to be found in the living of it. We lost not only a father, but a teacher and a friend. His strength and kindness will be deeply missed. Friends may contact the family at familymacmillan @yahoo.com. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The MacMillan Creative Writing Scholarship for Morris Central School, c/o Judy Matson District Clerk, Morris Central School, P.O. Box 40, 65 Main St., Morris, NY, 13808. "I am in the mail; therefore, I am." Ian MacMillan