Rodger McFarlane, who spent his life working for gay rights and helping those with AIDS, died Friday in Truth or Consequences, N.M.
McFarlane shot himself in a park outside town, leaving a note saying he had become “debilitated” with back pain and heart problems, which took away his ability to work, travel and participate in the sports he loved. McFarlane was 54.
McFarlane was former executive director of the Denver- based Gill Foundation, which supports gay causes as well as many Democratic efforts.
“Perhaps it was his way of taking charge of a bad situation,” former state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald said of the suicide. “I am so sad, just so sad. Rodger was very direct. Some people didn’t like that, but it didn’t bother me at all. I’d rather know what’s on somebody’s mind than be guessing what they meant.”
The Jefferson County Democrat had worked with McFarlane on Referendum I, which would have given gays some of the same rights and responsibilities as married couples.
“He was one of the most powerful strategists I have ever met,” said Denver pediatrician Dean Prina, a friend.
Tim Sweeney, president and chief executive of the foundation, said in a statement Monday that McFarlane “used his amazing intellect and strategic vision to further” the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender cause and that of the AIDS and HIV communities.
“Rodger did more for the gay world than any other single person who ever lived,” said Larry Kramer of New York, a longtime friend.
In 2005, McFarlane was instrumental in the creation of a Gill Foundation political nonprofit called the Gill Action Fund to fight ballot initiatives on gay-marriage bans and to steer wealthy donors toward supporting state and local candidates, according to a Denver Post story.
A statement about McFarlane issued by friends and family members said he “fought the right fight every day, was intolerant of silence and was an irreverent wise-cracking Southerner” who often used four-letter expletives.
McFarlane set up the first AIDS hotline, was the first paid executive director of Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City, the first organization to provide AIDS client services, and was president emeritus of Bailey House in New York City, the country’s first provider of housing for homeless AIDS patients, according to the foundation statement.
From 1989 to 1994, he was executive director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which was given a special Tony Award in 1993.
McFarlane’s work extended beyond gay and lesbian causes. He had received a Patient Advocacy Award from the American Psychiatric Association, a New York City Distinguished Service Award and the Presidential Voluntary Action Award, among others.
McFarlane was a Navy veteran and a licensed nuclear engineer, made seven over-ice expeditions to the North Pole and competed in Eco-Challenges in Morocco and Fiji.
He loved camping and off- roading in his Jeep, Sweeney said, adding that the 6-foot-6 McFarlane “had zero body fat.” He had had back surgery 18 months ago and suffered “incredible pain,” he said. McFarlane had been told recently he needed coronary-bypass surgery, Kramer said.
Rodger McFarlane was born in Theodore, Ala., on Feb. 25, 1955. He moved to Denver four years ago from New York.
He is survived by two brothers, Robert McFarlane of Wil liamstown, N.Y., and John McFarlane of Elizabethtown, Ky.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
Staff writer Lynn Bartels contributed to this report.
