It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our
friend, colleague,
and hero, Rodger McFarlane. A pioneer and legend in
the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights and
HIV/AIDS movements, Rodger
took his own life in Truth or Consequences,New Mexico last Friday. In a
letter found with his remains, Rodgerexplained that he was unwilling to
allow compounding heart and backproblems to become even worse and result in
total debilitation. Weknow that Rodger was in a great deal of pain. Already
disabled in hisown mind, he could no longer work out or do all the outdoor
activitieshe so loved. He was also now faced with the realization that he
could literally not travel, making employment increasingly difficult. As
his friends and family, we thought it was important that we communicate
to the world that it has lost an amazingly wonderful individual
who contributed so mightily to our humanity.


Rodger approached
every aspect of his life with boundless
passion and vigor. While many people
go their entire lives wanting to
be good at just one thing, Rodger excelled
at virtually everything he
did. Brilliant activist and strategist, decorated
veteran,
accomplished athlete, best-selling author, and humanitarian are just
a
few of the accolades that could be used to describe our friend. To
know
Rodger was to love an irreverent, wise-cracking Southerner who
hardly
completed a sentence that didn’t include some kind of
four-letter expletive.
He fought the right fight every day, was
intolerant of silence, and organized
whole communities of people to
advocate for justice. These were traits that
endeared him to us and
are traits that make his legacy incredibly rich and
powerful.


The power of Rodger’s many personal and
professional
accomplishments cannot be denied. He was on the forefront
of
responding to the AIDS epidemic that ravaged our country –
and
specifically the gay community – in the 1980’s. Before HIV even had
a name, in 1981, Rodger set up the very first hotline anywhere; he
just set it up on his own phone. That was the Rodger we knew. A
born
strategist and leader, Rodger took three organizations in
their
infancy and grew each into a powerhouse in its own way, empowered
to tackle this national tragedy.


One of the original volunteers
and the first paid executive
director of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the
nation’s first and largest
provider of AIDS client services and public
education programs,
provider of supportive housing for homeless people with
HIV.


From 1989 to 1994, he was executive director of
Broadway
Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), merging two small
industry-based
fundraising groups into one of America's most successful
and
influential AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations.
During
his tenure at BC/EFA, annual revenue increased from less than
$1
million to more than $5 million, while also leveraging an
additional
$40 million annually through strategic alliances with other
funders
and corporate partnerships. Rodger was also a founding member of
ACT
UP – NY, the now legendary protest group responsible for
sweeping
changes to public policy as well as drug treatment and
delivery
processes.


Most recently, Rodger served as the executive
director of the
Gill Foundation, one of the nation’s largest funders of
programs
advocating for LGBT equality. He transformed the Foundation
by
sharpening its strategic purpose. He focused its philanthropy in
the
states, aligned its investment with political imperatives and
forged
relationships with straight allies that helped to further both
the
LGBT movement as well as the greater progressive movement. Rodger
was
instrumental in the creation of the Gill Foundation’s
sister
organization, Gill Action. The brilliance of Rodger’s vision is
being
seen today as important protections for LGBT people become a
reality
in more and more states.


No one will ever doubt that our
friend Rodger lived a rich and
complete life. A proud U.S. Navy veteran,
Rodger was a licensed
nuclear engineer who conducted strategic missions in
the North
Atlantic and far Arctic regions aboard a fast attack submarine.
A
gifted athlete, he was a veteran of seven over-ice expeditions to
the
North Pole. He also competed internationally for many years as
an
elite tri-athlete, and in 1998 and 2002, competed in the
Eco-Challenges
in Morocco and Fiji, where he captained an all-gay
female-majority
team.


In spite of the fact that Rodger never completed college, he
was
an accomplished and best-selling author and the producer of works
for
the stage. Rodger was the co-author of several books, including
The
Complete Bedside Companion: No Nonsense Advice on Caring for
the
Seriously Ill (Simon & Schuster, 1998), and most recently,
Larry
Kramer’s The Tragedy of Today’s Gays (Penguin, 2005). In 1993,
he
co-produced the Pulitzer Prize-nominated production of Larry
Kramer’s
The Destiny of Me, the sequel to The Normal Heart.


Rodger
had a reputation as a hard-ass. That reputation didn’t do
him justice. Many
of us will remember Rodger as a caregiver, a man who
nursed countless friends
and family members battling cancer and AIDS.
He was the most compassionate
and giving of friends, especially to
those in physical or emotional
distress.


His many achievements were recognized throughout his life.
Most
recently, he had received the Patient Advocacy Award from the
American
Psychiatric Association. Other honors included the New York
City
Distinguished Service Award, the Presidential Voluntary Action
Award,
the Eleanor Roosevelt Award, and the Emery Award from the
Hetrick
Martin Institute, as well as Tony and Drama Desk
honors.


How do you sum up someone’s life in just a few words?
It’s
impossible and you can’t. To commemorate Rodger’s life, his
friends
will organize celebrations of his, the details of which are still
in
the planning stages. If Rodger was anything, he was a character
through
and through; there are, quite literally, thousands of “Rodger
stories.”
That’s part of what made him such a special person. During
our celebrations,
we’ll share some of these stories and reflect on the
many legacies left by
our friend for life, Rodger McFarlane.


Information on donations in
memorial will also be forthcoming.

Rodger increased the organization's fundraising from a
few thousand dollars to the $25 million agency it is today. Until his death,
he was the president emeritus of Bailey House, the nation's first and
largest