Obituary: Former Gill Foundation Leader Rodger McFarlane
May 19, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Rodger McFarlane, a prominent gay-rights leader who is credited with starting the first AIDS hotline in the early 1980s and who led several major nonprofit organizations, died Friday in New Mexico, reports The Denver Post.
Mr. McFarlane, 54, killed himself in a park near the town of Truth or Consequences and left a note citing debilitating back pain and heart problems, the Post reports. He was a Navy veteran and an avid outdoorsman as well as executive director of the Gill Foundation, in Denver, from 2004 to 2008.
In New York, Mr. McFarlane was the first paid executive director of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and president emeritus of Bailey House, which provides housing for homeless AIDS patients. He also led Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS from 1989 to 1994.
