This is sad news indeed. A couple of things about Roger:
The less important one: his Erdős number is 2, thanks to his coauthoring "A generalization of the fast LUP matrix decomposition algorithm and applications" with Shlomo Moran whose Erdős number is 1. (It's not shown on his Wikipedia page, but he's listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_by_Erd%C5%91s_n... .)
Roger was a great example of "precision with humanity", like Ken Iverson. This was obvious in many ways, and here's an unusual one: I've managed various technical groups over the decades, and Roger was the only person who, when he said he'd have something done by a particular date, was finished by that date, every single time. When he ran into a snag I would sometimes tell him that it would be okay if it took longer, but no, as far as he was concerned he'd made a commitment and was going to meet it, even if that meant working a lot of extra hours.
This Variety piece doesn't do him justice in the least. For instance, the paragraph about his marriages is snarky and I suspect that the writer was unaware that, per Wikipedia, his final marriage ran ~32 years until death did them part. I expect that more knowledgeable pieces will be forthcoming.
Harlan Ellison was one of a kind, and although I never had any contact with him[1] I really feel this loss. Even though his works are still with us (I have a bunch of his books, and so many of the stories are etched into my brain), he won't be challenging us the way he did.
[1] Unless you count the time when in a crowded corridor I heard someone behind me saying "Wheelchair. Wheelchair." and moved out of the way – and it turned out to be Ellison walking with a young woman who was horribly embarrassed.
I find it amusing that "but he's an artist" is being said as though it might possibly influence the powers that be. The TSA, police, judges, etc. have little tolerance for anything that doesn't conform to the ordinary and expected - including art. In earlier times in the USA anyone who questioned the political-economic system was accused of being Communist; excuses didn't work then either. With authoritarianism and polarization now on the rise in the USA, things are even worse. "Different"="bad".
Relevant to this issue is that the more brain you devote to analytic thinking, the less you have for empathetic thinking, according to the findings described here: Empathy Represses Analytic Thought, and Vice Versa: Brain Physiology Limits Simultaneous Use of Both Networks http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161416.ht...