Joseph Brewer Obituary

BREWER, Joseph Conrad December 22, 1944 October 24, 2019 Joe Brewer, retired psychotherapist in San Francisco, passed on October 24, 2019, in Palm Springs, California, where he resided with his spouse Scott Tyman Brewer. Joe was the firstborn son of Homer and Lenore Brewer of Decatur, Georgia, born while his father was imprisoned in a German POW camp during World War II; Joe met his dad six months later when he returned home after the war's end. Despite growing up in the homophobic South, Joe emerged as a proud gay man who remained proud also of his Southern heritage. He was an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1966, where he was president of his chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. He received a Master's degree from the University of Texas in Austin, where he also developed skills in film-making. A proud moment for him was shooting footage of the American Indian Movement's occupation of Alcatraz Island. Joe resided in San Francisco for most of his life, earning a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and conducting a successful practice as a clinical psychologist for many years. In 1984, when AIDS was devastating the gay community in San Francisco and the world, Joe worked with Martin Delaney to create PROJECT INFORM, which promoted safe sex education and advocated for information about emerging treatments, and which was an outstanding gay advocacy organization for many years. Joe is survived by his beloved husband Scott, his siblings Jeff Brewer [Karen Parisi] and Kat Taylor [Sharon Mann]; his beloved nephews Alex Brewer and Blake Deeds; his beloved niece Kayla Brewer; and his two dogs, Milo and Cooper. Memorial donations may be sent to the Desert AIDS Project in Palm Springs, or Animal Samaritans in Thousand Palms, CA. Photos and memories may be posted at the FaceBook page "In Honor of Joe Brewer."

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Published by Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Nov. 17, 2019.

Memories and Condolences
for Joseph Brewer

6 Entries

Shirley Wilson

April 14, 2020

I never had the honor of meeting Joe Brewer but isn't life odd that this evening I was thinking about him and decided to look him up? I was saddened to read of his passing. In 1990 when I read of Vito Russo's passing I wanted to get in touch with his mother. I remembered in a documentary Vito mentioned being in Hawaii with Joe Brewer when Vito's partner Jeffrey passed away. I called Joe's office and he was kind enough to put me in touch with Arnie Kantrowitz who then put me in touch with Ann Russo. And so it goes. I wish I had met Joe in person and am sorry for his husband Scott and all who loved him.
Also through those connections to Vito's family I met his brother Charlie at the Castro theater at the showing of Jeffrey Schwarz's film of Vito. Thank you Joe Brewer for the part you played in being so kind as to put me in touch with those I have now known for so many years.
Shirley Wilson (LGBTQ ally)

Bill Johnson

January 13, 2020

I woke this morning - Jan. 13, 2020 - thinking about Joe and googled him only to discover his obituary online. I am so saddened by this news. We were good friends in San Francisco in the 1970s and into the 1990s, when life changes caused us to lose touch. We had many mutual friends in the gay and AIDS communities. After I moved to NYC to live with Vito Russo, I stayed at Joe's whenever I was back in SF. I remember well the last meal we shared on one of those visits. I admired Joe's therapeutic work and, especially, his work with Project Inform. Joe was brilliant, kind, loving, fun and politically astute. Sincere condolences to Scott, to his sister, brother and other loved ones. You live in my heart, Joe. Rest in peace, dear friend.

Joe, Land's End San Francisco, around 1970

Mark Greenberg

November 19, 2019

I lived with Joe in San Franc Isco in 1970 and 1971 and we remained close for many years, visiting each other in New York, where I moved, and In San Francisco, where he remained. About ten years ago we seemed to loose contact, but rarely has a day passed when I did not think of him. Ironically, he appears to have been living just a few miles from me in the desert.
I would dearly like to write to his sister and brother, whom I remember fondly and to shake the hand of Tyler, his husband and the luckiest man in the world. He alone will understand my grief. Joe was the love of my life.
Mark Greenberg
[email protected]
760-200-9212
43893 Via Granada
Palm Desert CA

Mark Greenberg

November 19, 2019

Mark Greenberg

[email protected]

43893 Via Granada
Palm Desert CA 92211

Mark Greenberg

November 19, 2019

Joe and I were lovers -- the term of art in those days -- in the early 1970s in San Francisco. We remained friends for many years after, he in San Francisco, I in New York. For no good reason we lost contact with each other some years ago.

It came, then, as a body blow to read of his death this morning in the Desert Sun, and worse, to discover that he'd been living so close to me here in the desert.

I would dearly like to write his sister and brother, both of whom I remember fondly. And, most of all, I would like to shake the hand of his husband, Scott.

I loved Joe like no other in my life.

Carol Cole

November 16, 2019

Joe was in my class at Decatur High . I think I knew even back then that Joe was gay. He was a friendly boy, and extremely smart. I never knew what happened to Joe after we all graduated, but that seems to be the way it always happens. People go their own way and live states away from where they grew up. I am glad that Joe was happy.

Carol Barnwell Cole
Class of 1962

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