Not much new here for people who have been following, but Discover magazine has an interview with Burt Rutan. I don't think that he's the "Granddaddy of space colonization," though. If anyone deserves that title, it's probably Gerry O'Neill.

Or, apropos to the title bestowed by the 'Discover' editor, I'm prompted to say, "I knew the granddaddy of space colonization, sir, and Mr. Rutan is not that granddaddy."

Actually I think most would give that title to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. As he stated.

The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever. - 1896

Most writers since have just refined the technical details of his ideas, which will continue to be refined as space technology matures in the future.

Yeah, has to be Tsiolkovsky.

After all, neither Tsiolkovsky or Rutan have built interplanetary manned spacecraft, yet.

Well, speaking about technology, whom do we call a granddady in aviation ? Leonardo ? No practical accomplishments, great ideas way ahead of time.
In this vein, Tsiolkovsky would be the right guy.

But hey, wait, colonization isnt really a topic of technology. We dont call Leif Ericsson "a grandddaddy of American colonization" do we ?

Other than that, my vote would go to Gerard O' Neill as well. He was the visionary that put the idea of practical space development, colonization and exploitation of its resources into peoples minds for proper.

Funny, I would think it was writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Issac Asimov or Robert Heinlien that showed humans living and working in space that would get credit for popularizing the idea.

Gerard O' Neill habitat designs are interesting but I expect the first politically independent space settlements will look a lot more like Issac Asimov's Spomes or the underground cities from Hienlien's stories.