Merric's being famous is hardly news. His reputation was established long ago for his substantial contributions to Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures.
For those not familiar, FRUA was essentially a consumer version of the program used to create SSI's classic 'goldbox' computer rpgs. FRUA allowed you to make your own 'goldbox'-style adventures and spawned an amazing community of supporters who created a huge library of adventures and mods for the program. Merric contributed extensively to this library and served admirably as the FRUA newsletter.
Despite the arrival of Neverwinter Nights' design tools, the FRUA community remains strong, producing new, fun adventures with a program that is now about 10 years old!
zog