"My old friend Michael Franett died peacefully, of an apparent heart attack in his sleep. He was 63. For all but a bit of the dozen years of Inside Chess magazine, Michael was the Editor. He organized, negotiated, paginated, made comprehensible. Throughout, he adhered to two tenets: get the magazine out on time, and "avoid the horrible". For example, Issue 1 of Volume 1 had the wrong year printed on the cover, the kind of error which Michael did not allow to pass when it became his turn. A man of great charm, when so inclined, he was known around the office as "Grizzly" or "The Grizz" (derived from the animal names which John Donaldson gave to several of the staff. Ursus horribilis, the Grizzly Bear, was the one that stuck), his alter ego as Editor. With a gruff working demeanour and a 6-foot-5 frame, he was a natural. Despite the prickliness, he was a generous man, and he loved animals. Schooled by the Jesuits, Michael had a variety of careers: soldier, medical orderly, taxi driver, bartender, chef ... which gave him a rich but unromanticized view of life. He was well-informed on many subjects, was a voracious reader (not just in chess), and also liked sports (particularly basketball and American football, both professional and college). As a chessplayer, he had been Washington State Champion. His understanding of strategy let him play even with grandmasters sometimes, but on other occasions his disdain for detail could lead to debacles against lesser players. An Editor who disdained detail? His work was in broad strokes. There was a copy editor and a proofreader for that other stuff. After Inside Chess, he did some writing at Chess Cafe and also taught chess in the schools in his native Seattle. In the dozen years of Inside Chess, I used to pop down to Seattle three or four times a year to keep the computers in order (inter alia) and it was de rigueur to have Lunch with Michael where he would offer his unique view on what was happening. I usually stayed at Grizzly Manor, the home of Michael and his wife Janice (Mrs. Grizzly, though a more un-apt nickname could not be invented). But Michael did not bring work home; it was at lunch break that the full majesty of his thoughts came through."