During the early 1950s Tackett was a
Drill instructor at
Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. He retired in 1962 with 20 years of service and went on to co-found
Bubonicon in 1969 with the writer
Robert E. Vardeman. That same year he was the Guest of Honor at
Westercon. He produced more than 100 issues of his fanzine Dynatron during the 1960s, and was the TransAtlantic Fan Fund winner for 1976. Roy was the Fan Guest of Honor at the
1997 Worldcon in
San Antonio, Texas. As part of the run up to the ceremony in San Antonio, Mojo Press released
The Least Horrible of Roy Tackett which consisted of selected short stories he had written over the previous 50 years. ==Personal life==