Obituary of Alfred K. Glossbrenner
Alfred K. Glossbrenner, longtime resident of Yardley, Pennsylvania, and author of over sixty books, including one of the very first books aimed at teaching people how to go online with a personal computer, died on Sunday, July 14, 2024. He was 74.
Alfred grew up in Canton, Ohio, the son of Alfred B. and Caroline K. Glossbrenner. He was a member of Christ Presbyterian Church and spent many weekends of his youth there, learning the values and teachings of the Old and New Testaments and developing a profound belief in God that would sustain him throughout his life. He attended public school in Canton and graduated in 1968 from Glenwood High School, where he was an honors student and honed his skills in debate and extemporaneous speaking.
Summers during Alfred’s childhood were spent at Culver Military Academy in Indiana, in the Woodcraft Camp, Summer Naval School, and as a counselor. At Culver he gained a deep appreciation for the beauty and complexity of nature. He also learned to sail and spent one especially memorable summer overseeing the crew of the O.W. Fowler—a 54-foot, wooden-hull, three-masted square rigger. Thus was born his passion for books about the Age of Sail by Patrick O’Brian and others.
After high school, Alfred went on to Princeton University. He majored in English, served on the debate team, helped manage the marching band, and was a member of Cottage Club. He was chosen Class Poet in his senior year. Ever the visionary, Alfred wrote his senior thesis on modern fantasy and science fiction, five years before the release of “Star Wars.” He graduated in 1972 and set his sights on New York City, where he hoped to become a science fiction writer. Discovering early on that that was going to be a hard way to make a living, he began writing sports books instead. The most notable of these was The Art of Hitting .300, written in 1980 with Charlie Lau, famed hitting coach for the Yankees, to the delight of baseball fans around the globe.
Not long after publication of the hitting book, Alfred’s writing career took a major turn when he replaced his IBM Selectric typewriter with one of the first IBM PCs off the assembly line. Intrigued at the prospect of using this new device as a research tool for his writing projects—tapping into online services like The Source, CompuServe, computer bulletin boards, and the giant databases at the Library of Congress—he set about learning all he could about it and then sharing that knowledge.
Soon recognized as one of the pioneers of the personal computer revolution, Alfred helped put the world online with his books and magazine articles, starting in 1983 with The Complete Handbook of Personal Computer Communications (St. Martin’s Press). Dozens of other titles followed, all with the aim of introducing people to the wonders of personal computers in general and to the online world and the Internet in particular. He had an uncanny knack for taking a complex subject and making it understandable. It was a God-given gift, he would say, that if he could understand it, he could explain it to anyone.
Alfred has been called “the Isaac Asimov of personal computing” and hailed as “The Great Communicator” by the New York Times. A marketing campaign by one of his publishers was illustrated with a cartoon showing two baffled and frustrated PC users with the caption, “Quick Alice, get me the GLOSSBRENNER!”
As gratifying as all that was, Alfred’s greatest joy was receiving fan mail from readers who said, “You’ve changed my life.”
In addition to his writing talents, Alfred was a skilled conversationalist. He loved meeting new people, and whatever their age or occupation, he knew just what questions to ask to get them talking. At family gatherings with nieces and nephews on the Outer Banks and at his home in Bucks County, the moms and dads were often amazed at what Uncle Alfred could draw out of their sometimes shy and uncommunicative offspring.
Alfred is survived by the love of his life, his wife and frequent co-author, Emily Schneck Glossbrenner. They met as college sophomores and were married in 1974 in the Princeton University Chapel. Alfred and Emily shared a passion for Bucks County, their 200-year-old farmhouse on the Delaware River, 18th-century American architecture and furniture, and Oriental rugs—the perfect manifestation of which is the Colonial Williamsburg-style guest house they built on their property and offer as a vacation rental. They would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in September.
Alfred is also survived by his beloved brother, David F. Glossbrenner, of Bakersfield, California. And he leaves behind many treasured nieces, nephews, cousins, sisters- and brothers-in-law, and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Nancy Russell Glossbrenner.
In keeping with Alfred’s wishes, family and friends are gathering privately to remember him and celebrate his life. Donations may be made in his memory to Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, 1635 River Road, New Hope, PA 18938. Arrangements are under the care of the Fitzgerald-Sommer Funeral Home, 17 S. Delaware Avenue, Yardley, PA 19067.
