Jason Zavoda

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Greyhawk Creator

Jason Zavoda
Jason Zavoda, circa 2020.
Nationality:	American
Born:	November 23,1965, Dover, NJ
Died:	December 22,2021
First Greyhawk work:	Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
Notabale works:	Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

Obituary

"Jason Ernest Zavoda, beloved son, brother and uncle departed this life December 22,2021. He died at home after suffering many years with the complications of diabetes.

Jason was born November 23,1965, in Dover, NJ. Jason grew up in East Brunswick, NJ and lived in Wilmington, DE for the last 35 years.

He will be remembered for his love of writing and reading. He had an enormous ability to remember what he read and loved a good conversation. In fact, he could talk for hours without repeating himself and was especially interested in history. He had a beautiful deep bass singing voice and loved to sing.

He loved Dungeon and Dragons and spent a lifetime amassing knowledge and items related to his passion. He loved sharing his passion with others in person, speaking on podcasts, writing stories and selling his ‘good finds’ to others as a small business. He published an extensive index for Dungeon and Dragons books that he sold to Hasbro.

While he was a large imposing man, well over 6 feet at age 13, and once worked as a bouncer in a biker bar, he was very devoted and protective of his mother. He loved cats, and was very gentle and protective of them as well. He was especially skilled in mathematics and worked as a math tutor at Delaware Technical Community College. He particularly liked working with disabled veterans going back to school.

He leaves behind his beloved mother, Vivian Zavoda, brother Joseph Zavoda and his wife Margie and their children Katie Pagnotta (Tom), Jenny Dunn (Tyler), and Dan; his sister, Joan Savage and her husband Todd and their children, Megan Den Dulk (Chris), Jessica (Sean), Michael (Leah); nieces Karen Heider, Laura DiPuppo (Rob), and Andrew Heider (Samantha); and great niece Ava Pagnotta and great nephews Joey Pagnotta, Henry Den Dulk, Flynn and Lennox Savage; and several cousins.

He was pre-deceased by his father Joseph Zavoda, and sister Vivian Joyce Heider.""

Greyhawk works

Jason is most well-known for creating the original Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index. He worked diligently for years creating a catalog of every proper noun in all the published Greyhawk books at the time. He continued with some Dragon magazine issues. When the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer was published, it did not have an index—which was considered one of the few flaws of the book. Zavoda indexed it, and that index was published in Living Greyhawk Journal #12, in June 2002.

Zavoda continued to compile information into his index through '08, and his work was continued and updated by many other fans like: a French fan group, Eric Johnson, Richard DiIola, Jason "PupickDad" Jaobson, and numerous other fans over the years.

Though he left the fan community for about a decade, Bryan Blumklotz was instrumental in bringing him back to actively engaging in the fan community. When Ghosts of Saltmarsh was published, Jason used Facebook, Discord, and other social media to put out a separate supplement to the EGI of the data he indexed from it.