Harry Harrison has passed away. 
Harry Harrison at Worldcon 2005 in Glasgow, August 2005. Picture taken by Szymon Sokó? : Picture from wikimedia. GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
He was a huge inspiration for Traveller. One of the eight example Heroes and Villains characters in LBB Supplement-1 was based on James DiGriz from The Stainless Steel Rat. One of the nine example Heroes and Villains characters in LBB Supplement-4 was based on Jason dinAlt from the Deathworld Trilogy.
You can read or download a few of his stories for free at the Project Gutenberg.
Image from Deathworld. Copyright expired.
I was just listening to a Librivox recording of “The Misplaced Battleship”, an early Slippery Jim story. I had forgotten how much his stories influenced Traveller. May he rest in peace!