San Francisco Chronicle - November 13, 2008
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer

He was a veteran of the health care battles over AIDS and a tireless advocate for the down and out, friends and colleagues recalled.

"He was such an inspiration, Hank the lionhearted," said San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who met Wilson in the mid-1970s when both were gay teachers and joined forces to fight for protections against discrimination in the public school system. "He was committed to social justice."

Mr. Wilson had a hand in the creation of more than a dozen community organizations and events over the years, many of which still exist, although some changed names over time: Gay Teachers Coalition, Bay Area Gay Liberation, the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center, ACT UP, the AIDS Candlelight Vigil, Castro Street Safety Patrol, Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, Community United Against Violence, Butterfly Brigade, and the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, among others.

"He was sort of a Johnny Appleseed of gay and lesbian organizing: wherever he went, organizations sprouted," Bob Ostertag, an expert on gay history who was a longtime friend, wrote on his blog.

Mr. Wilson also initiated Ammiano's insurgent write-in campaign for mayor in 1999 against the incumbent, Willie Brown. Although he was unsuccessful when the final votes in the runoff race were counted, Ammiano's bid for mayor paved the way a year later for the election of an anti-Brown slate of candidates who took control of the Board of Supervisors, moving the legislative body decisively to the left.

In 2001, Mr. Wilson ran unsuccessfully for the District Six seat on the Board of Supervisors.

Mr. Wilson, who lived modestly in a small, rent-controlled apartment on Market Street, was a grassroots organizer who "did everything but never wanted the credit," Ostertag said. "He was selfless."

Another friend and collaborator, Tom Calvanese, said Mr. Wilson had boundless compassion and was a fierce advocate, especially for the forgotten and beaten down. Mr. Wilson managed an SRO hotel in the Tenderloin, the Ambassador, for formerly homeless people living with AIDS. There, he made sure the tenants had clean bedding and food to eat and brought fresh flowers and plants to their rooms, often on his own dime.

"Those things might seem small in the big picture, but they meant a lot," Calvanese said. "A lot of people called him the Mother Teresa of the Tenderloin."

Henry "Hank" Wilson was born in Sacramento in 1947, the eldest of three children, and was gregarious growing up, said his sister, Selby Wilson. Mr. Wilson was the school mascot - an Apache Indian - at Encina High School and always had a lot of friends. He earned a bachelor's degree in education at the University of Wisconsin, Calvanese said.

Mr. Wilson moved to San Francisco shortly after the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City that marked the beginning of the modern-day gay liberation movement. In the city, he started as a kindergarten teacher and dived head first into politics to fight a 1978 state ballot measure, the Briggs Initiative, which would have permitted the firing of teachers in California for being gay.

The failure of the measure was due, in part, to the efforts by Mr. Wilson, Ammiano and others who spearheaded the opposition campaign by urging gays and lesbians to come out and put a human face on the intended target of the proposed law.

"Many, many folks in the community have achieved significant fame for their achievements, and deservedly so," said AIDS community advocate Jeff Sheehy. "But a movement requires teams of people doing all sorts of work, and Hank was always there, always working as hard or harder than anyone else, always a positive, inspirational force, always mentoring newbies to the movement, always contributing his wisdom, energy and force of will.

"He is the activist's activist," Sheehy added.

Mr. Wilson's AIDS was diagnosed early in the epidemic, and he developed many infections. "He was really a survivor," his sister said. "Even when he was down, he'd never quit." She credited his longevity in part on his lifelong passion for swimming.

Ammiano said, "He acted as a beacon - a longtime survivor who defied the medical odds."

In the end, it was lung cancer that killed Mr. Wilson, a non-smoker.

In addition to Selby Wilson, of Atascadero (San Luis Obispo County), Mr. Wilson is survived by his brother, Timothy Wilson, of Pioneer (Amador County).

A memorial service is being planned for next month.

E-mail Rachel Gordon at rgordon@sfchronicle.com.

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