The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society began to honor its own in 1959 with the creation of the Evans-Freehafer Award, named after two of the club’s most influential and popular members, E. Everett Evans and Paul Freehafer.   E. Everett Evans – “Triple-E” or “Tripoli” – was one of the first LASFSians to become a successful professional author during his active membership in the club, with over a dozen short stories and novels published during the 1950s before his death in 1958.   Paul Freehafer was only 27 when he died of a rheumatic heart in 1944, but it was his cheerful enthusiasm for carrying club projects to completion that made the LASFS one of the leading SF clubs of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The Evans-Freehafer Award is presented at each LOSCON to that year’s recipient.   The award is presented for service to the LASFS, recognizing hard work and dedication to the club.   The award is decided by a special committee made up of the three previous years’ recipients, and the winner is a closely-guarded secret until the announcement.

Only four people – Bruce Pelz, Bob Null, Mike Donahue, and Elayne Pelz – have received this award more than once.   In 1972, rather than present the award to a currently active member, the decision was made to give the award to Forrest J Ackerman, retroactively all the way back to 1942, for his years of service to the club.   In 2005, a special one-time version of this award (the Evans-Freehafer-Mason Award) was given posthumously to Michael Mason.

This award is not the same as the Big Heart Award, administered for forty years by Forry Ackerman in memory of E. Everett Evans.

For more information on the Evans-Freehafer Award, see this article in Fancyclopedia.