Ferd Eggan, a writer, activist, teacher, and tireless advocate for people with HIV/AIDS, died in Los Angeles on July 7 at age 60 after a six-month bout with liver cancer, complicated by HIV and hepatitis C infections.

For the past 20 years, Eggan’s leadership and his multifaceted strategic and organizing skills have had an enormous impact on the fight against AIDS, particularly in Chicago and Los Angeles. He was one of the founders of ACT UP Chicago.

Eggan was born in Alpena, Mich., in 1946, the oldest of three boys. A life-long activist, he was a veteran of the “new left,” civil rights, gay liberation, and student movements of the 1960s and early 1970s. He entered the University of Chicago in 1964, but eventually dropped out and burned his draft card. In 1965 he worked in a project organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in South Carolina, helping African American citizens register to vote. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was active in the Gay Liberation Front in Chicago, and in Join Hands and the June 28th Union in San Francisco, as well as numerous anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and social justice movements. In 1975-6 he received his B.A and M.A. in U.S. History from California State University at Hayward.

Between 1975 and 1990, he worked as a teacher in Evanston and Chicago. From 1979 to 1990, he also taught history and served as principal at Escuela Superior Puertorriqueña Pedro Albizu Campos, a project of the Don Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Humboldt Park.

During these years, he traveled extensively in Latin America and became fluent in Spanish. In Chicago, he participated in political and cultural actions against U.S. intervention in Nicaragua and El Salvador and in solidarity with Puerto Rican people’s struggles against colonialism. He marched in the annual GLBT Pride Parade to express the link between struggles for freedom across the world and for queer liberation.

In 1987, a small group of gays and lesbians met in Ferd’s apartment to launch DAGMAR, the first activist group on HIV/AIDS issues in Chicago. DAGMAR’s first public action was a 24-hour vigil at Gov. James Thompson’s residence in August 1987. As a member of DAGMAR and later of Chicago for AIDS Rights and ACT UP/Chicago, Ferd participated in and led other significant local and national actions, including the first AIDS demonstration in the Loop in April 1988, the “Target CTA” action in May 1989 and the marches, vigils and civil disobedience protests at the National Actions for Healthcare in Chicago in April 1990 that resulted in the opening of the AIDS ward at Cook County Hospital to women. He was a key co-founder of the national ACT UP PISD Caucus.

In 1990, Ferd moved to Los Angeles, became executive director of Being Alive, an organization for people living with HIV/AIDS, and was active in ACT UP/L.A. From 1993 to 2001 he was AIDS coordinator for the city of Los Angeles.

Eggan retired on disability in 2001, when he began to concentrate more on his writing, video art and travel abroad. A brilliant thinker and rhetorician, Eggan’s creative output included experimental films, audio CDs and prolific writing—he published numerous journal articles, essays, poetry and fiction, including two books.

In 1970-1972, with Carel Rowe, he co-wrote, co-produced and performed in the Video Free America production, “The Continuing Story of Carel and Ferd,” which was exhibited as a multi-channel video installation at The Kitchen in New York in 1971 and broadcast on PBS between 1971-1973. This avant-garde experiment with video verité has been described as the “first reality TV series” and inspiration for the better-known “An American Family” in 1973.

From 2003 to 2005, Eggan wrote and published a serial “e-novel” called “The Continuing Story.” In the past two years, he created the video-blogs “Communiqués from the Cranky PWA” (www.crankypwa.blogspot.com) and “Revolution is an Eternal Dream” (www.ferdeggan.net).

On April 29 Ferd was invited by Lori Cannon to speak at the opening of “Unrelentingly Drawn: The Editorial Cartoons of Danny Sotomayor” at the Gerber Hart Library in Chicago. In a biographical note written for the occasion, he wrote: “My own struggles with queerness, AIDS and depression have led me down many paths, both light and dark; now I am researching the philosophical and neuro-chemical bases for both discontent and social transformation.”

Ferd Eggan is survived by two brothers, Andy and Eric; two sisters-in-law, Linda and Jean; two nieces, Julie and Kelly; one nephew, Bryan; and countless dear friends and colleagues. A memorial service is to be held in Los Angeles on July 29 at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. A celebration of Ferd Eggan’s life and times is planned in Chicago in the near future.