LEGAL Board Of Advisors Member
Don Matthys, Jr., Dies

LEGAL Board of Advisors member Don Matthys, Jr., 30, of Shreveport, died Sunday morning, May 25, of pneumonia after a lengthy battle with AIDS. A longtime employee of the Philadelphia Center, Matthys had recently helped to create and organize the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Northwest Louisiana.

Matthys, until recently prevention coordinator at the Philadelphia Center, frequently and publicly challenged state and local officials when public policies impacted people with AIDS.

"History will remember that the greatest villains of these crises were not those who said AIDS was God's judgment or those who showed up at school board meetings in protest of providing prevention information," Matthys wrote the Shreveport Times in early 1996. "The greatest villains are those parents who know children deserve the public health information necessary to stay alive and have never said that to their school board members or even discussed these issues with their child."

Survivors include his spouse, Michael Freeman; parents, Wayne and Mary Harris; brothers, Eric Harris and his wife, Audrea; Patrick Harris, Jason Matthys; sister, Diana Harris, and a host of friends who loved him dearly.

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Remembering

LOU VILLARS

Miss you & wish you were
with us on your 40th birthday June 14th.

...Love, Mom, Dad, Family & Friends