Jack, Thank you for sharing this tribute about your older brother Barrie.  I remember you from way back as a little kid.  Barrie & I were friends throughout junior high and high school.  We spent many Friday & Saturday nights together with our special group of friends.  I think both Barrie & I (there were no doubt others) came drunk to a highschool dance, but I was the only one to get in trouble and suspended.  Somehow, Barrie seemed to always escape being caught.  We lost track of each other for a time, but reconnected later on in his life and we visited for a time after his diagnosis.   To say that Barrie was the life of the party, would be an understatement.  Barrie was always fun, irreverant and lived life on the edge.  At the time, he was the first person I had ever known to travel alone to India.   I once asked him if he had a partner, his answer was "I'm too cantankerous for anyone else to live".   Barrie was a great friend, a great person and he continues to be missed. Midge Bongard Frailich  

Barrie was a great dancer. We performed together many times. I still have pictures of our performances!

Dear Jack, I don't log on to this site very often but tonight I did and saw your moving tribute to your brother Barrie. Since you specifically mentioned his former classmates, I wanted to respond. I had several classes with Barrie throughout HS and while I was unaware of his being gay at that homophobic time, it wouldn't have mattered to me. He made me laugh so many times and I loved knowing him - even if I wasn't in his closest circle of friends.  While his death saddens me, I am spirited by the many lives he touched after High School and am grateful for your sharing so much of his life with all of us - his former classmates and friends.  May Barrie rest in peace. It was a pleasure to have known him...   Wayne Klayman Oakdale, MN

Barrie wasn't just my older brother, but a person who was one of my hero's in life.  How memoriable he was is illistrated by how many people still come up to me that knew my brother and always have a smile when they talk about him.  Although My brother lived a short life, don't feel bad for him, because we should all live such a full life.  From the time he graduated Slp he was one step on a Airplane off to somewhere exotic place.  Unfortunately our father had to call the police to escort him off the plane till he was 18 a couple of times :-) He traveled the world twice, visited places Like Iran, Iraq, India, China, and too many countries to count.  When He came back to the states he settled in L.A.  Self teaching himself the skills to become extremely succesful.  Barrie wanted to be an actor getting a few small roles in movies, one I still watch every time its on is the original star trek motion picture.  He also took his dancing skills to the gong show being the only person to be on it twice and actually won!  I still have the gong in my living room mantle.  From there he had to make a living so he became the head controller of Hemdale pictures, a little studio that while he was there produced a couple of small pictures you may have heard of,  "Platoon, and Terminator".  He was on his way to reaching the stars until one fateful day when he went to UCLA to have himself tested for a sickness that was afflicting Male Homesexual Men.  My brother was alway courageous and open with his sexuality.  When He found out that he had contracted this disease and was HIV positive, Like everyone at the time, he knew it was a death sentence.  That was 1981.  It wasn't till 2 years later that he accepted that it didn't need to be a death sentence.  I truly believe My brother's life began after he contracted the most incidious disease, of our generation.  As more and more of his close friends, lovers started passing away around him, he became more active in aids awarness and prevention.  He was a constant beacon of light for so many.  Because he was diagnosed at UCLA, he was in the first comprehensive study of its kind on the diease.  Because of this he had access to all the cutting edge drugs available.  He had AZT before it was called that.  He had the cocktail before it was the cocktail.  But I truly believe his calming nature, his sense of humor, and how at peace he was kept him healthy and alive for so long.  He was one of the backbones of the Pasedena Aids service center.  Being a person so many looked up to, showing that Aids doesn't have to be a death sentence.  But what was one of his truest acts of courage, was a project he received a small grant from to start a literacy program for homeless people. The difference is he would teach homeless people to teach other homeless people how to read. His belief is that a homeless person would be more responsive another homeless person, and give self worth to the person who was the teacher.  He had no immune system left but still worked with homeless people every day.   It was one of his proudest achievments.  My brother lived for 16 years with Aids and He fought it till the end.  I don't know what was harder to see in the end, him passing away, or the countless people that were devestated by his passing that on a daily basis were cheered up by his sense of humor.  How he was seen as a symbol of how you can survive with Aids.  How many people came up to me after and personally wanted me to know how he affected them in such a positive way.  So I just wanted you fellow classmates of my brother to know he lived, he dreamed, and he became a person who represents the best of what a person can be.

Barrie was a sweet man.  A lot of fun and a wicked sense of humor.  I liked him very much.