Scrivener of Doom
Adventurer
This is what Old Geezer said on the RPG.net forums some years ago:
Old Geezer played in Gary's group and also in Dave's group later. He answers quite a few questions like this fairly regularly.
Aragorn, yep. Cuz Lord of the Rings had Rangers, and in 1975 or so Lord of the Rings was almost the only fantasy out there.
Rangers first appeared in Strategic Review #2, summer of 1975, written by 18 year old Joe Fischer. (with whom I went to high school)
And regardless of where they went, or what they actually looked like, in 1975 "Ranger" meant "Strider".
Old Geezer played in Gary's group and also in Dave's group later. He answers quite a few questions like this fairly regularly.