On the Asimov's readers forum, Gardner Dozois and Tom Purdom were discussing how the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is dependent to a large extent on the SFWA president. As Purdom says, the SFWA "president picks the Grandmaster, with the concurrence of the current officers and the past presidents." Dozois concurs and adds that "I know for a fact that who the President was pushing for was the key factor in who got the Grandmaster on several occasions--sometimes against stiff oppositionfrom other SFWA officials." Purdom requested that someone compile a list of SFWA presidents and the Grandmaster picks for their terms. Here's that list, which is based on data from Wikipedia:
- Jerry Pournelle (SFWA president from 1973-1974): Robert A. Heinlein (Grandmaster, 1974)
- Frederik Pohl (SFWA president from 1974-1976): Jack Williamson (Grandmaster, 1975)
- Andrew J. Offutt (SFWA president from 1976-1978): Clifford D. Simak (Grandmaster, 1976)
- Jack Williamson (SFWA president from 1978-1980): L. Sprague de Camp (Grandmaster, 1978)
- Norman Spinrad (SFWA president from 1980-1982): Fritz Leiber (Grandmaster, 1981)
- Marta Randall (SFWA president from 1982-1984): Andre Norton (Grandmaster, 1983)
- Charles Sheffield (SFWA president from 1984-1986): Arthur C. Clarke (Grandmaster, 1985) and Isaac Asimov (Grandmaster, 1986)
- Jane Yolen (SFWA president from 1986-1988): Alfred Bester (Grandmaster, 1987)
- Greg Bear (SFWA president from 1988-1990): Ray Bradbury (Grandmaster, 1988)
- Ben Bova (SFWA president from 1990-1992): Lester del Rey (Grandmaster, 1990)
- Joe Haldeman (SFWA president from 1992-1994): Frederik Pohl (Grandmaster, 1992)
- Barbara Hambly (SFWA president from 1994-1996): Damon Knight (Grandmaster, 1994) and A. E. van Vogt (Grandmaster, 1995)
- Michael Capobianco (SFWA president from 1996-1998): Jack Vance (Grandmaster, 1996) and Poul Anderson (Grandmaster, 1997)
- Robert J. Sawyer (SFWA president in 1998): Hal Clement (Grandmaster, 1998)
- Paul Levinson (SFWA president from 1998-2001): Brian W. Aldiss (1999) and Philip José Farmer (Grandmaster, 2000)
- Norman Spinrad (SFWA president from 2001-2002): No Grandmaster selected
- Sharon Lee (SFWA president from 2002-2003): Ursula K. Le Guin (Grandmaster, 2003)
- Catherine Asaro (SFWA president from 2003-2005): Robert Silverberg (Grandmaster, 2004) and Anne McCaffrey (Grandmaster, 2005)
- Robin Wayne Bailey (SFWA president from 2005-2007): Harlan Ellison (Grandmaster, 2006) and James Gunn (Grandmaster, 2007)
- Michael Capobianco (SFWA president from 2007- present): Michael Moorcock (Grandmaster, 2008)
Obviously, there might be minor discrepancies with the list since there are occasional overlaps between presidential terms and the year a Grandmaster was selected. Still, the list points to possible stylistic, political and philosophical patterns between the SFWA president and the Grandmaster(s) chosen during their terms. However, I'll leave it to the readers to draw their own conclusions on these points.