by Tracy Baim, Windy City Times

Paul Varnell, a longtime columnist for the gay press, died Dec. 9 of complications from pneumonia and a stroke. He was 70.

Varnell, born April 16, 1942, in St. Louis, was the son of an attorney for the Pennsylvania Railroad, so his childhood was marked by a series of moves around the country. He graduated from Cornell University and attended graduate school in the mid-1960s at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Varnell taught for several years at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, but because he never completed his dissertation ( his specialty was Jonathan Swift ) , he never received tenure and eventually left his post. At Northern, he headed the education committee of the Gay/Lesbian Union from 1977 to 1982.

Ted Sigward, his friend from Indiana University, remained close to Varnell since their college coming-out days. Varnell visited Sigward in his Chicago home while still living in DeKalb. Varnell moved to Chicago around 1982.

Varnell held nontraditional jobs and began his activism in full force in Chicago. He was a board member of Parents and Friends of Gays in Chicago from 1983 to 1984; chaired the Media Committee of the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1983 to 1990 ( for part of that time he was also IGLTF's research director ) ; was a member of the Chicago AIDS Task Force from 1982 to 1990; was a co-founder of CARGO, the Chicago Area Gay Republican Organization, in 1984; and helped to promote the Gay History Month founding in 1994 ( some sources list him as co-founder, but he was not a founder of the event, though he was very supportive of the efforts ).

full story:

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=35183

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