Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke visited Kansas University in April 1966. He died Wednesday at age 90.

Before “2001: A Space Odyssey” made him wildly famous, Arthur C. Clarke visited Kansas University as part of the university’s 100th birthday celebration.

Clarke, a British novelist who died Wednesday at age 90, was already well-known as a futurist and novelist. He spoke on the third day of the four-day Inter-Century Seminar, conducted in April 1966 by a number of faculty and students including retired communications studies professor William Conboy.

Conboy said the event was so named because it was between the first century of KU and its second.

“It seemed like a good idea, since we were between centuries, to know where we’d been and to see where we might be going,” Conboy said.

Conboy said Clarke was impressed by the event, particularly with the other expert speakers that were brought in. Some of the speakers included two former KU chancellors, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institute of Washington.

James Gunn, a retired professor of English and science fiction writer in his own right, edited a history of the event and remembers it fondly. He was also responsible for picking up Clarke from the airport in Kansas City.

“When he was here, he was talking about a relic from Greece, a kind of primitive computer to track solar movements,” Gunn said. Gunn said Clarke added that if technology had progressed from there, humankind would have already reached Jupiter by the 1960s.

Gunn and Conboy said the event was extremely successful and received a lot of media coverage. Each cited Clarke as one of the most exciting parts of the four-day event. Clarke was paid $500 plus travel expenses from Sri Lanka for coming to KU.