October 18, 1963 – July 9, 1989
Jeffrey Dee Whitmyer graduated from Okemos High School in 1982. He attended Lake Superior State University for a year before moving to Dallas, Texas, returning to Michigan in 1989. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 25.
Lansing State Journal, July 11, 1989
June 18, 1963 – July 16, 2009
Matthew Dean Colden was born in Flint and attended Kearsley High School through 10th grade before dropping out. Colden worked as a chef in restaurants in the Flint and Detroit areas for much of his adult life and lived in Mount Clemens with Steve Daldine, his lover of 27 years. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 46.
Flint Journal, July 18, 2009
May 8, 1963 – October 28, 2009
Rockford resident Toni Lynn Hall was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in the small west Michigan town of Belding, where she played basketball on her high school team. She later worked as a life coach with the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching. Hall was survived by two daughters and her life partner Wendy Brower.
September 15, 1963 – December 16, 2007
Lansing native James Michael Nickoff was kicked out of his home at age 15. He survived on dishwashing jobs and worked his way through college, earning his B.A. in accounting at Michigan State, where he was active in the Lesbian-Gay Council. After he moved to San Francisco, he served on the founding board of Equality California and married his partner Dave Lawson in 2004. Nickoff took his own life at age 44.
September 21, 1963 – March 22, 1994
Born in Pontiac, Scott Russell Sweeney of Bloomfield Hills earned his bachelor’s in communications from Michigan State University in 1985 and later pursued studies at the University of London in the UK. Sweeney enjoyed a rich career as a public affairs manager within the auto industry, overseeing the rollout of the Ford Mustang and the F150 Lightning. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 30.
Detroit Free Press, March 24, 1994
November 13, 1963 – May 27, 1996
Born in Howell, Grosse Pointe Farms resident Sara Maria Briden grew up in Grosse Pointe and graduated with the class of 1981 from South High School. She later attended the Ford School of Nursing and the University of Michigan before becoming a beauty consultant and operating her own business. An active runner and swimmer, Breden was also a supporter of Affirmations Community Center.
Grosse Pointe News, May 30, 1996
February 13, 1963 – January 10, 1995
Port Huron native and lifelong resident Charles James Jewell graduated with the class of 1981 from Port Huron High School and worked as a computer operator for a local bank. Confronted few resources in St. Clair County for people with HIV, Jewell founded HIV/AIDS Support Services in 1993. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 31.
September 18, 1963 – April 3, 2020
Growing up in the 1970s, Ellen Marie Rogowski of Holly was the first girl to play in a boys’ baseball league in Royal Oak. She earned her B.A. and M.A. from Oakland University and taught middle school in Pontiac and English at Henry Ford Community College and Lewis College of Business. She was also an accomplished musician, releasing three albums. She and Rosemary Jozwiak shared 30 years together.
January 26, 1963 – March 9, 1995
Scott Bernard Amedure moved to Waterford from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was five, left high school at 17 to join the U.S. Army, and later worked as a bartender at Popper’s in Pontiac. In March 1995, two days after Amedure revealed his secret crush on his straight acquaintance Jonathan Schmitz during a taping of the Jenny Jones Show, Schmitz murdered him in his Orion Township mobile home.
August 17, 1963 – October 1, 2017
Glen Arbor resident Bryan John Borchardt earned his B.A. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985. He was employed in banking with JP Morgan Chase in Traverse City. He also raised and showed champion Shetland sheepdogs and operated Solstice Shelties. Borchardt and his husband Brandt Waldenmyer were together 27 years.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 