Background
Popham was born in Emmett, Idaho, and graduated from Portland State College, Oregon.
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Paul Popham
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He also helped found and was chairman of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Action Council, a lobbying organization in Washington. He was the basis for the character of Bruce Niles in Larry Kramer"s The Normal Heart, which was one of the first plays to address the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome crisis. He retired in 1969 as a Special Forces major in the United States Army Reserve.
After his time in the army, Popham worked as a banker on Wall Street for the Irving Trust Company, leaving as a vice president in 1980.
Thereafter, he joined McGraw-Hill Incorporated. as a general manager. Popham didn"t become politically active until reading a newspaper article in 1981 about the disease that became known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Richard Doctorate. Dunne, president of the Gay Men"s Health Crisis at the time of Popham"s death said: "His history had been quite the opposite from a gay activist.
lieutenant was only an issue like Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome that galvanized people like Paul." Popham was diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in February 1985 and remained active with GMHC until his illness became too severe. Larry Kramer, who later left GMHC to found ACT Uttar Pradesh, frequently fought with Popham.
Kramer wrote in Reports from the Holocaust that, as a result, when writing the roman à clef play The Normal Heart, Kramer made the protagonist Ned Weeks (the cypher for himself) be obnoxious and Bruce Niles (the cypher for Popham) be a clearly sympathetic leader, by way of contrition.
On his deathbed, Popham repeated to Kramer on the phone, "keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting". He was survived by his mother, brother, two sisters and his longtime partner Richard DuLong.
Achievements
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Born
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Died
March 7, 1987 (aged 45) -
Nationality
United States