Anthony Turney, who served as the CEO of the NAMES Project Foundation and was ordained to the Episcopal diaconate in 1996, died Friday, July 4 on the 38th anniversary of his becoming a United States citizen. He was 76.
Mr. Turney had battled cancer for the last three years. Surrounded by family and friends, he died peacefully at Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco. He had spent the last two years of his life living with his friend of 30 years, David Perry, and Perry's husband, Alfredo Casuso.
"The community has lost a true giant," said Perry. "Anthony was a natural born leader, and a man of extraordinary talent, grace, and challenging intellect."
Mr. Turney's career included positions as deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts; executive director of the Dance Theater of Harlem; and administrative director of the San Francisco Opera.
Mr. Turney was born in Sutton, England, on December 23, 1937, the second oldest of three children within a family that soon broke up. The Turney family of Aylesbury, near London, adopted him when he was 4.
At the age of 17, he joined the Grenadier Guards, an infantry regiment of the British Army and the most senior regiment of the Guards Division. Besides serving in the Guards' iconic ceremonial duties outside of Buckingham Palace, Mr. Turney also saw distinguished service under fire during the Suez Crisis.
He moved to the United States in 1968, first establishing himself in New York City as an independent event producer. He was especially proud to have once presented Buckminster Fuller at Carnegie Hall.
With the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Mr. Turney's life changed dramatically. In mid 1991, he quit his work to care for his partner, James Brumbaugh, who died in 1992 from AIDS.
Mr. Turney served as the executive director and CEO of the NAMES Project Foundation, the custodian of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, from 1993 to 1997. Through his initiative, the NAMES Project established the landmark "Quilt in the Schools" program whereby individual AIDS Quilt panels traveled around the country to further HIV education.
Under his leadership the quilt traveled to Washington, D.C. where it was displayed on the National Mall and was viewed by more than 1 million people. Through Mr. Turney, the NAMES Project adopted a simple and eloquent new mission statement: "End AIDS."
In 1996, Mr. Turney was appointed to the San Francisco Arts Commission. In 2000, he was a consultant to the United States Agency for International Development, assisting in the agency's efforts to partner with faith-based organizations in responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.
As an openly gay member of the clergy at Grace Cathedral, Mr. Turney was a vocal advocate for marriage equality and other social justice issues. An energetic volunteer and traveler, he spent a month walking across Spain along the Camino de Santiago and successfully biked, three times, from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of the AIDS LifeCycle.
Mr. Turney is survived by his San Francisco, St. Louis and Los Angeles family; his Episcopal Church community; friends around the world; his canine companion, Drew; and his family in England and in Canada.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Mr. Turney's memory may be made to one of the following: the Sacred Dying Foundation (www.sacreddying.org); the Rainbow Honor Walk (www.rainbowhonorwalk.org); the Ghiberti Foundation; the arts and culture foundation at Grace Cathedral (www.gracecathedral.org); or the San Francisco Opera Archive ( www.sfopera.com).
Mr. Turney's funeral will be held at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral at 11 a.m. Monday, July 14. Beginning at 7 a.m., his body will lie in repose in the AIDS Interfaith Chapel.