With great sadness I must announce the death of my partner, Rodger Charles Brooks. He died at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco on September 26 from complications of HIV. He was a long-term survivor.
Rodger was an activist going back to his teens when he participated in the 1963 March on Washington. While attending the University of Hawaii in the 1960s, he was involved in the anti-war movement. In the 1970s he and his partner, Larry Berner, a gay schoolteacher, were involved in fighting Proposition 6 in California, which tried to ban gays from teaching in the public schools; it was defeated. Rodger was a co-chair of the 1978 Gay Freedom Day celebration, and helped politicize that event in light of the anti-gay movements then arising in the country. He worked under Carole Migden at Operation Concern. In the 1980s he was an Amma Massage practitioner targeting men sick and dying from HIV. He, himself, participated in an early clinical trial of AZT in 1989.
In the past 10 years he joined the HIV/AIDS advisory board of SF Kaiser; wrote for the Kaiser HIV Update newsletter under the name of Ol' Codger Rodger; and initiated the World AIDS Day Red Ribbon Awards at Kaiser for outstanding service to the HIV community. In October 2007, he received a Community Hero Award from the SF Gay Men's Community Initiative for his work in the community. He was active with Thriving in SF, a support group for long-term HIV survivors, for the past several years.
Rodger leaves his partner of the past 28 years, Bernard A. Niechlanski, as well as his beloved sister, Gail (Kenneth) Brooks Jackson of Illinois; his brother Robert (Bonnie) Brooks of Ohio; nieces, nephews, and other extended family. A celebration of Rodger's life is planned for his birthday on November 11. Contact Bernard Niechlanski for details at [email protected].