In a letter written by author Larry J. Martin, Chet Cunningham is remembered fondly for all of his contributions throughout life:
"What do you say, think, feel, when one of your lifelong
idols passes? And not only an idol, but
a dear friend.
Chester Cunningham, known as Chet to his millions of fans
all over the world, drifted away to meet his maker on March 14, 2017 at the age
of 88. 88 productive, positive, and
pro-active years. Every day of the more
than a quarter century I knew him personally, after many former years admiring
his work, Chet wrote, a statement easily acknowledged by his over 300 novels
plus a handful of non-fiction works. As an aspiring writer myself, Chet was
kind, helpful, and generous. He ran a twice-monthly writer’s group, which was
an outgrowth of an adult education class he taught on writing. The group has
been going strong since 1962.
When I first met Chet, at a WWA convention, he was caring
for his sweet, beautiful wife, Rosie, who was confined to a wheelchair with
Multiple Sclerosis. Showing deep
heartfelt compassion—a trait every friend and acquaintance knew well—Chet cared
for Rosie’s every need, even while attending writer’s conferences and other
business. If you saw Chet, you saw
Rosie. Rosie passed away in 2007 and
Chet mourned, but his grief was buried by the sound of a keyboard
clattering. He kept writing, many times
doing a western a month—his favorite but far from only genre.
In 1994 he founded
the non-profit corporation, San Diego Book Awards Association, to recognize
local writers of books. A competition for the best book in 18 different
categories is held yearly and $100 and certificates awarded to winners. From
this has come the Read-4-Fun program aimed at 5th graders to encourage them to
read more. Free books are given to students who do 200 pages of outside reading
and turn in a book report. The Read-4-Fun committee now works with 15 schools
and just over 2,000 students. In 2005 the group gave away more than 3,000
books.
After a long career being published by the most prestigious
companies in the world, the western fell out of favor…but Chet was never one to
take no for an answer, and continued to produce. Even at his age he embraced change, and with
the advent of eBooks was soon dominating Amazon’s Classic Western bestseller
lists. Many times over the last four
years I marveled at seeing a dozen or more Cunningham novels among the top 100,
and more than once 2 or 3 or more in the top ten. His times as Number One were too many to
count. I was pleased to enjoy lunch with
Chet at a Western Writers of America conference in San Diego and, as always, he
was upbeat and entertaining. He will be
sorely missed by his family: son Greg Cunningham, daughter Christine Ashworth,
grandchildren Matt Cunningham, Chet and Tim Ashworth, as well as two
great-grandchildren; by his peers; his admirers; and millions of fans. He lives on in an admirable, prodigious, and
envied by all who tried to compete, body of work."
L. J. Martin
We celebrate author Chet Cunningham and hope you enjoy all of his audiobooks we at Books In Motion have been so blessed to produce. Rest in Peace, Mr. Cunningham.
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