Lorraine Williams was hired as manager of TSR, Inc by company co-founder Gary Gygax in 1984, and was in charge of the table game company from 1986 to 1997.
12 Facts About Lorraine Williams
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In 1996, an unexpectedly high cost of returned fiction books and an expensive, unsuccessful foray into the collectible card game market caused a cash flow squeeze, and Lorraine Williams sold TSR to Wizards of the Coast in 1997.
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Lorraine Williams inherited the rights to Buck Rogers and a large collection of Buck Rogers memorabilia.
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Lorraine Williams is the granddaughter of John F Dille who, while president of the National Newspaper Service syndicate in the 1920s, arranged for Buck Rogers to be turned into a syndicated comic strip.
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Lorraine Williams then became an assistant administrator at the Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center.
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Lorraine Williams successfully worked with creditors of TSR to get money coming back into the company again.
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However, Kevin's brother Brian had a longstanding stock option which he triggered; both brothers then sold their stock to Lorraine Williams, making her the majority shareholder.
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Gary Gygax 8.
Lorraine Williams worked as a financial planner and she saw the potential to make the company highly profitable.
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Former TSR employee Mike Breault has stated that he does not recall a rumored ban by Lorraine Williams on playing games in the company during his time in TSR, but does go on to say that the vast majority of the products were not playtested.
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Lorraine Williams held the rights personally to Buck Rogers through her family, and she encouraged TSR to publish games and novels based on the Buck Rogers license.
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The family of Lorraine Williams owned Buck Rogers, so TSR paid royalties to the family for their use of the character.
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Lorraine Williams said at the time of the announcement that her instinct had been to hold on to everything, but she had come to realize that it was more important to get the collection out into the public.