Frank Robinson, a gay man who was a well-known science fiction writer and a major contributor to slain gay icon Harvey Milk's legacy, died Monday, June 30. He was 87.
Mr. Robinson, who wrote speeches for Milk, passed away at his home in San Francisco, concluding a life that included military service, film, and politics.
"I'm quite sad," said longtime gay activist Cleve Jones, 59, of Mr. Robinson's passing. Like Mr. Robinson, Jones was also a confidante of Milk's. "He was a very important figure, and I don't think many people really understood what a big contribution he made to our efforts."
Robinson "is a big part of Harvey's legacy," said Jones, "so many of the words" for which Milk is remembered "were Frank's words."
Mr. Robinson was born August 9, 1926 in Chicago. His sense of humor is evident in his online biography, where he wrote, "At age 3, the old man was deported to Canada for signing other people's names to checks. Obviously where I get my writing talent."
John Levin, 70, of San Francisco, who knew Mr. Robinson for about 40 years and is serving as the trustee of his trust, said Mr. Robinson "came from a poor background" and grew up in an orphanage.
Mr. Robinson eventually became a radio operator in the Navy, said Levin, and served in World War II and later in the Korean War. He received a bachelor's in physics from Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, and then a master's in journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, according to his biography.
Eventually, Mr. Robinson wrote the Playboy Advisor column for the popular magazine known for featuring photos of naked women.
Brian Kamps, 33, a friend of Mr. Robinson's, said people have told him that the column "was one of the only real places where you could find gay-positive information" in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Mr. Robinson wrote the column.
Jones said his friend was part of the gay liberation movement in Chicago in the early 1970s, but Mr. Robinson also continued living an unpredictable life.
He authored numerous books, including 1975's The Prometheus Strain, with Thomas Scortia, and 1991's The Dark Beyond the Stars. His 1974 book The Glass Inferno, which he also wrote with Scortia, was part of the basis for the film The Towering Inferno.
Around that time, Mr. Robinson met Milk outside Milk's Castro Street camera shop when he stopped to play with the shop's dog.
In the foreword to Harvey Milk: An Archive of Hope , a collection of Milk's speeches and writings, Mr. Robinson wrote that Milk, then a failed candidate for supervisor, told him of his plans to run again and asked whether he wanted to write speeches for him.
"It'll be a hoot," he recalled Milk saying. "We'll stir some shit."
Daniel Nicoletta, 59, who lives in Grants Pass, Oregon and was friends with Mr. Robinson and Milk, said in a recent interview, "Harvey's notes, if you look at them, are pretty erratic, both in terms of grammar and idea formation," but Robinson was able to "take that and turn it into something concise."
Jones pointed to the 1977 speech in which Milk famously said, "You have to give them hope" as an example of Mr. Robinson's work.
Milk became one of the first out LGBTs to win elective office in the United States when he won a seat on the Board of Supervisors in November 1977. Just over a year later, in November 1978, former Supervisor Dan White fatally shot Milk and then-Mayor George Moscone in City Hall.
Mr. Robinson appeared in the 2008 biopic Milk and became friends with Dustin Lance Black, who won an Academy Award for the film's screenplay.
In a statement from the national Human Rights Campaign, Black, who's gay, said, "For Frank, the word 'hope' was not a notion for our dreams, it was a bold call for immediate action in a time when it was illegal to be gay in every corner of this nation. He offered Harvey his strength, wit and wisdom. He shared the same with me, still grimacing at the idea of partial equality and patience. He felt strongly that what he called a 'checkerboard nation' of contradictory laws still denied LGBT young people the hope and pride he so desperately wanted for them. So each time we spoke, he'd end with, 'Fight on.'"
At least locally, Mr. Robinson's sexuality "was not a secret," Levin said, but it wasn't until around the time of the Milk film that he came out to his family.
Marilee Robinson, 75, of Ocala, Florida, was married to Mr. Robinson's brother Mark, who died in 1997.
"It was always suspected" that Frank Robinson was gay, said his sister-in-law, but "we didn't discuss it � It didn't matter to us. He had his lifestyle and his friends, and we've met a lot of his friends from time to time. They were always just really wonderful people."
Kamps, one of Mr. Robinson's friends, met him 10 years ago and helped take care of him toward the end of his life.
He said Mr. Robinson had had an irregular heartbeat for years, and in October, he'd had a stent put in. Then, in April, two more stents were inserted. Jones said that about three weeks ago, Mr. Robinson had been hospitalized with pneumonia.
Kamps said that despite Mr. Robinson's health troubles, he'd remained "very active" and managed to finish his autobiography.
Then, said Kamps, Mr. Robinson "wound down very peacefully and passed away the morning of June 30 at about 5:30."
In an excerpt provided by Kamps, Mr. Robinson wrote in his autobiography about sitting outside, watching "two young men, maybe in their mid-twenties, strolling hand-in-hand."
He wrote, "If they were open to advice I'd tell them to get married. � It's a different world now and as I look at the couples passing by, I can't tell any difference between them in any ways that really matter."
A memorial is planned from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, August 8 at the Women's Building, 3543 18th Street, in San Francisco.