In memory of Dean Essig - Lets help his grandkids!

In memory of Dean Essig lets help his grandkids!

Hi, it is with very sad hearts that we've told the gaming community that our good friend, outstanding game designer of more than thirty years, devoted and loving father, and just an all around great guy Dean Essig has passed from this earth.

As you may know, Dean had recently been in a car crash brought on by a stroke that was caused by a very aggressive form of brain cancer, Dean peacefully passed on March 24th of 2024.

Dean is survived by his three children - daughter Rosalind, and two sons Joseph and John, and his two grandchildren Arlow and Cillian.

In 2001, Dean sold his company The Gamers to us, Multi-Man Publishing (MMP). He and his wife were very, very helpful in the transition and we were glad to have Sara help us where needed and for Dean to sign on as an MMP employee continuing to do the "fun" part of historical board game design - the research, design, and play testing and preparing games for publication, while leaving the manufacturing and delivery to MMP. This worked very well for over twenty years with The Gamers line of games thriving under this arrangement.

While Dean was ill, and since his passing, we have had many requests as to how Dean's many fans could help his family. Quite frankly, we were so caught off guard as to the speed of his illness we didn't have time to get something officially set up.

A great idea was suggested to us by Lu Ann, the office manager at MMP, how about honoring Dean by setting up a fund for his two beloved grandchildren, Arlow (8) and Cilian (6 weeks) to help with their future educational costs.

We are certain that this is something Dean would have GREATLY appreciated and falls right into his wheelhouse - it's both practical and helps his children plan for their children's future. If you knew Dean you know he was all about planning and support, like any well written Tactical Combat Series order sheet.

What we hope happens is this idea, and this fund, is well supported by the gaming community. We'll let it run for a good while, a few months at least, and we will then split the fund between Arlow and Cilian (and if any other grandchildren should happen along during this time they'll be included). We at MMP certainly hope this gofundme can fully fund their future college educations, but as we all know predicting college pricing 10 and 18 years in the future is problematic at best - lets just hope that it covers a very large chunk of this cost.

So please, if you were a fan of any of Dean's games or even if you just want to say thanks for the years of supporting the board wargaming hobby, consider donating a few dollars to help the education funds of Dean's grandchildren.

Thank you for your donating in memory of our coworker and our very good friend Dean Essig.

Brian, Perry, and Curt

Multi-Man Publishing, LLC.