E. Gary Gygax Sr. May Have Had Another, More Recent Will?

[JohnRTroy]

[Realize I posted this back in the original post...my mistake]

 

[Maxperson]

[Realize I posted this back in the original post...my mistake]

 

[Mistwell]

I'm not going to really profess my opinion on this, or talk about private information, but there are certain facts that can be looked up that I did want to point out to clarify things.

The current "Gygax Trust" was not established upon Gary's death, nor was it apparently an inheritance trust.

Since the founding of Trigee Enterprises, all of Gary's intellectual property was owned by Gail Gygax, NOT by Gary Gygax--Gary was "under contract" to Trigee Enterprises--and about 95% of Gary's output was done as Trigee. It was an arrangement Gary and Gail agreed upon for various reasons. So, basically since 1986 or so, all the stuff Gary worked on post TSR was owned by Gail, not Gary. In short, as far as I know, Gary couldn't even choose to leave any IP assets to his kids unless Gail agreed to it. In this response, I'm going by what I knew of Trigee from Gary himself, and my years working for him, along with things others have learned--there could be some details in the incorporation docs or elsewhere that might clarify things, so I won't say this with 100% certainty.

Trigee Enterprises was I believe then converted into or owned by the Gail C. Gygax Revocable Trust. Note that this is not a family trust, and she is listed as the sole recipient of it--I believe this trust was established years after Gary's passing. Documentation on this can be found at the Trademark Board for the active Gygax trademarks -- all documents say "The Trustees of the GAIL C. GYGAX REVOCABLE TRUST, a Wisconsin trust, the trustees comprising of Gail C. Gygax, a United States Citizen". So the current trust is, as far as I can tell, not something any of the kids are involved in, nor anything that was established as the estate when passing. (Could be wrong but I doubt the Trademark board would word it like that if there were other trustees involved).

In terms of the court, I don't believe Gail ever took her will to probate court. That's probably why there's a dispute now.

This is an old post from when this thread first began. I just wanted to clarify the relevant bits the Court ruled on three years later (and I know JohnRTroy is aware of all of this). The Trigee agreement was found to be void and treated as a temporary license, and that temporary license was terminated in 2006 by the new Will.

 

[Mistwell]

I love that in the 2006 Will Gary gives each child a first pick, second pick and third pick of gifts, including a possible percentile die roll as if players splitting treasure in a D&D game!

I must have missed it. Is there a place to read the text, or excerpts, from the 2006 Will? [Edit, I found it. Thank you @JohnRTroy for linking to that here.]

 

[JohnRTroy]

I must have missed it. Is there a place to read the text, or excerpts, from the 2006 Will?

It's in a prior post I posted, look for Oct 31st, 2023.

 

[Alzrius]

I must have missed it. Is there a place to read the text, or excerpts, from the 2006 Will?

I summarized some of it earlier, after purchasing a copy from the court, but wasn't sure about posting it publicly in this thread.

 

[JohnRTroy]

(I swear, if people are putting me on ignore I won't post the future docs I'm ordering, as I'm even considering ordering the transcripts).

 

[Mistwell]

(I swear, if people are putting me on ignore I won't post the future docs I'm ordering, as I'm even considering ordering the transcripts).

I didn't have you on ignore it's just a long thread and that post where you linked to it was also both long and had three attachments and I had just missed it. Sorry about that. I definitely don't have you on ignore and wouldn't do that. I really appreciate you purchasing these and linking to them here.

 

[Maxperson]

(I swear, if people are putting me on ignore I won't post the future docs I'm ordering, as I'm even considering ordering the transcripts).

Not ignore. It's just easy to miss things when you're spot hitting or following a dozen(or more) threads on limited time.

 

[JohnRTroy]

I didn't have you on ignore it's just a long thread and that post where you linked to it was also both long and had three attachments and I had just missed it. Sorry about that. I definitely don't have you on ignore and wouldn't do that. I really appreciate you purchasing these and linking to them here.

No problem. I just remember posting that three months ago, and not seeing any reactions or replies to that post, considering it was an important thing people wanted to know. So when you said "where's the will" I got kind of irritated.

(I've noticed most RPG message boards lately have less traffic in general this year...).