June 18, 2003
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) - Asa Baber, a longtime Playboy columnist, has died after a two-year battle with Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 66.

Baber began writing the "Men" column for Playboy magazine in 1982. The column supported men's rights through humorous and often politically incorrect writing.

Baber was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 2001. He died Monday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Baber's last column was published this month.

He grew up on the South Side of Chicago and graduated from Princeton University in 1958. He spent the next three years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He completed graduate work at Northwestern University and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop.

From 1969 to 1975, Baber was an English professor at the University of Hawaii.

His first novel, "The Land of a Million Elephants," drew on his experiences in the military. But it was his column that attracted widespread attention.

Survivors include two sons and a sister.