Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90.

Arthur C. Clarke at his home office in Colombo,

Wikipedia has, of course, extensive details about his life, including the rather large list of SF books that he wrote. Meanwhile the BBC has an obituary with links to some video of him.

I've read very few of his SF novels, so I can't really comment on his output, but you can't deny his role as an ambassador for SF.