Hero Of the Plague Years Remembered
In 1986, LIFE magazine ran a series of pictures by Alon Reininger depicting the AIDS epidemic. He met Ken Meeks, a friend of Larry Kramers in 1985, at his wedding. Reininger later recalled: "I did not want to do just a story about Ken Meeks. Ken was a character in a bigger story. He knew that I was taking his picture in a broader context. It just happened that I took a picture of him in one particular situation that struck a raw nerve with a lot of people.
Meeks, a graduate of Kean University, received a doctorate in social sciences from Ball State University. He was an assistant professor of economics at George Williams College from 1975 until 1982.
Meeks was 44 years-old when he died from AIDS-complications in 1986.
Meeks whose skin lesions were the result of Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS defining illness, died three days after the picture was taken. The picture Ken Meeks, Patient with AIDS, Being Cared for by a Friend, San Francisco, California was subsequently named World Press Photo of the Year.
https://www.hivplusmag.com/long-term-survivors/2018/9/26/hero-plague-years-remembered
The image is copyright Alon Reininger/Contact Press Images. Thanks to the AIDS Memorial Project for the hat tip.