Adrienne Losin

Fan
Name:	Adrienne Losin
Alias(es):
Type:	SF fan, club and event organizer
Fandoms:	Doctor Who, Star Trek TOS, wider science fiction.
Communities:	Austrek, Doctor Who Club of Victoria
Other:	Australian
URL:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Bjo Trimble and Adrienne at Victoricon, Melbourne, June 1991

Adrienne Losin, photographer unknown.

June 1980 Dr Who Convention in Sydney with John Pertwee and fans (from left) Adrienne Losin, Judith Houston, Alan Greenway and Barbara Billett (photo supplied by Judith McGinness).

Adrienne with Geoff Allshorn, Paula Ruzek and Robert Jan) at Austrek's 25th Birthday Party, September 2001

Adrienne Losin (???? - 9 October 2019) was a long-time fan within the Australian science fiction community, becoming involved in many groups and conventions.

A high school teacher, she joined what became the Doctor Who Club of Victoria at its foundation; she stepped in to become the club's media spokesperson, newsletter editor and interim President, publishing at least four issues of The Victorian Time Machine. Her public identification and active involvement within the club in its early days has led to her common (but inaccurate) attribution as being the club founder, although she certainly helped lay some significant groundwork for the club.

She was also an early participant in Austrek, helping to organise its first Trekcon and other events.

In both clubs, her aversion to committee politics led to her largely (but not completely) stepping away after being invited to formalise her involvement.

Over subsequent years, she was a participant in a wide and diverse variety of groups and conventions, in both Australia and overseas.

Early Doctor Who Club

Doctor Who Club of Victoria co-founder Judith McGinness later recalled Adrienne's participation in the early club, commencing with Tom Baker's visit to Melbourne:

I read [Tom] was coming to Doncaster Shoppingtown, and it was in the early days of shops being open until nine o’clock at night...

So I got out of work and when I arrived, I think he already started the book signing and there were a lot of people around doing late night closing on a Friday night, lots of families...

Then at the end, when he packed up, it was mostly families just shopping there, and then there were people like me who had gone there on purpose. I suppose there might have been about a dozen of us, all teens and 20s. We just spoke to each other, started a conversation like, “Oh, what did he say to you? How long have you been watching it?” You know, the usual stuff. So we all got very matey standing there in the Shoppingtown. Then somebody says, “Is there a Doctor Who club?”, “No, I haven’t heard of any.”, “Oh, there ought to be one. Why don’t we start one?” And that’s it, that’s exactly what happened. That would have been me, actually who said that. And look at it now. We’re still here 44 years later.

Adrienne Losin was there and said, “Well, it’s Anzac Day next week, a public holiday. Come over to my place and we’ll talk about it.” She lived with her parents, as we all did in those days, that’s how young we all were. She lived in Ringwood and taught at the Croydon High School. So a whole lot of us went over there, and it was very exciting. Just to have other people to talk to about Doctor Who. That’s the first time I met Ellie and Tessie, Ellie was a legend. She came with a whole lot of people from Austrek, it was a bit of an overlap of interest you see. There were a couple of other people come to help out. Doug McLeod, a writer, he died recently, he ended up running The Comedy Company and lots of other things. Then there was a kid called Graham Jones who was only 14 and was one of Adrienne’s students who was a huge fan. It was very productive. I asked, “Okay, so right, we’re going to start our club. When’s the next meeting?” And Ellie says, “We can have it this time next month at my place.” She lived in Port Melbourne.

Legacy

Adrienne passed away in 2019.

Geoff Allshorn wrote an obituary for Adrienne that was published in SF Commentary #101 in February 2020:

"Two of my earliest memories of Adrienne Losin testify as to her unique nature. In 1977, she was part of a group that went to see a science fiction film that formed part of a double feature. The first film was a short documentary about microscopic life. As the narrator informed us that a cellular life form ‘multiplies by dividing’, Adrienne burst into laughter. This introduced me to her subtle but quirky sense of humour. A year later, when an upcoming episode of The Paul Hogan Show featured a short sketch called Star Trot (a send-up of Star Trek), Adrienne arranged for a group of fans to visit the Channel 9 studios and have a tour of the set. This demonstrated her ability to organise fan events, often at short notice.

"I first met her over forty years ago, through the Star Trek club. In those days, Austrek was a fledgling group run largely by school students. Using her background experience as a school teacher, Adrienne helped us to organise our first convention and she arranged venues for a couple of our early club functions. I understand that she played a similar role in assisting others to launch the local Doctor Who club. For me, Adrienne was full of explosive enthusiasm and vigour, nobility and eloquence. Across many SF clubs and social network forums, people have their own anecdotes regarding Adrienne.

"I last spoke with her at a convention in Melbourne, when she informed me that she was moving to Queensland in order to be closer to family. I am glad that she got to spend time with them, although she continued to come to Melbourne on special occasions. She leaves behind a rich tapestry of SF memories. To paraphrase Douglas Adams: so long, Adrienne, and thanks for all the fandom."