Eugene Lee Coon (January 7, 1924 – July 8, 1973) was an American screenwriter, television producer and novelist. He is best remembered for his work on the original Star Trek as a screenwriter, story editor, and showrunner from the middle of the series' first season to the middle of the second. Along with series creator Gene Roddenberry, Coon is given credit for the show's idealistic tone and for creating several key story and world-building elements that would become important parts of the ongoing franchise. Life and career The eldest son of U.S. Army Sgt. Merle Jack "Pug" Coon and decorator Erma Gay Noakes, Eugene Lee Coon was born in Beatrice, Nebraska, on January 7, 1924. At four years of age, young Gene showed talent, singing on the radio at WOAW-AM in Omaha. He knew twenty-four songs, including one in French and one in German. As his boyhood went on, Coon was a member of the Gage County 4-H Club and the Boy Scouts of America. He later attended Omaha Technical High School and participated in Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC), also playing in the school band. During this time, he was also a teenage newscaster for KWBE (AM) in Beatrice. Coon later moved, with his parents and younger brothers, Merle Jack Coon Jr. and Bloise Newell Coon, to Glendale, California. Another brother died at ten years old when they still lived in Beatrice. His father found employment there working with poultry, and Coon transferred to Glendale High School. During World War II, Coon served stateside in the United States Marine Corps from 1942 to 1946. Thereafter, he remained in the Marines as a reservist while studying radio communications at Glendale Junior College, where he performed in a production of The Night of January 16th. Following additional studies at the University of Iowa, he returned to active duty during the Korean War in 1950. He received additional training as a war reporter as well as running a pharmacy and building houses. He wrote about many of his experiences in the novels Meanwhile Back At The Front and The Short End of the Stick. Upon his demobilization in 1952, Coon found work first as a radio newscaster before turning to freelance writing under the mentorship of Los Angeles Times reporter Gene Sherman. From 1954 to 1959, Coon operated a pharmacy at the intersection of Beverly Boulevard and North Ardmore Avenue; during