Talk:John Rawlins

Beloved son of the late Helen and Charles T. Rawlins, loving brother of Mary Anne Rawlins and Christina Rawlins, brother-in-law of Rene Pastika, and also survived by many loving cousins and friends.

John was born in 1959 and grew up in Elmhurst, NY with his parents, two sisters, Aunt and Great Aunt, He attended St. Mary’s parochial school in Woodside, He was raised in the Catholic faith and served his parish as an altar boy and boy scout.

John loved math, in fact in at his high school, Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, he graduated with honors in algebra, geometry and trigonometry. But his love and talent and devotion was to creative storytelling.

John attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Institute for Film where he obtained a scholarship grant for dramatic writing at the recommendation of the chairwomen of NYU’s dramatic writing program. While a student, John made several films and wrote for the satire publication, The Plague. He graduated from NYU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1980.

John wrote several plays for the theatre and was actively involved with the theatre group Pen To Stage Productions. The group produced a number of John’s plays, including Griffin and Clown Town, at various venues throughout New York city. His one act play, Last Rites, won honorable mention in a contest sponsored by Writer’s Digest magazine.

In 1985 John wrote several episodes of the animated television show, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers. While the show never became a commercial success, it did have a dedicated cult following. Fans created numerous web pages devoted to the show, including holding a annual convention in Seattle.

John worked at First Chicago Trust Company eventually landing in Computer Operations as part of a three person Voice Communications team. The company partnered with AT&T for the first automated call back systems. John wrote several of the UNIX scripts that were used for one of the first systems automating the routing of telephone calls.

John began his independent explorations in computer graphics and programming in 1998 and released a game for the Macintosh. Players were challenged to solve a series of puzzles to locate a missing architect and return him to his home city. He promoted the game via his rainbowdragon website. In 2000 his game, Hax, a scenario for Realmz, won accolades from computer game enthusiasts and was played by users from Australia to the UK and across the US. John was writing a new kind of story for the digital environment. Rather than the analog beginning, middle and end, John was embracing a new way to reach a much deeper level of audience involvement, than he ever could with a film or theatre storyline.

Never one to leave the stage behind, John jumped at the chance to work in the theatre again, In 2013 his play, ZX & the Switcher, was performed in New Hampshire at the Mole Hill Theatre, directed by Lionel Chute. In 2016 John and fellow writer, Dan Fiorella, were interviewed for a special edition DVD for The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers anniversary. (see links below)

John continued his creative story writing and his talent will live on undoubtably in his as yet unpublished stories. John was devoted to his catholic faith and a caring son to his parents and loving sibling to his sisters. He enjoyed the camaraderie of his many cousins and friends.

He was an incredibly talented writer and storyteller. He was a quiet observer of people and clever in his language. His wit and his dry sense of humor will surely be missed. Those who knew John will always cherish their moments in his presence.

Please View John's Works: Galaxy Rangers Show and Tell Galaxy Rangers writer interview