Photos by Antonia Padilla

HRC to honor ‘Papa Bear’ founder of San Antonio AIDS Foundation
QSanAntonio.com, September 4, 2010

At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in San Antonio when no one wanted to treat the infected, Robert "Papa Bear" Edwards started the San Antonio AIDS Foundation to care for local gay men who were sick and dying. In the process he became a fervent advocate for people with AIDS who faced discrimination in housing, on the job and in the military.

On October 23, the Human Rights Campaign will honor Edwards’ achievements at their annual Gala Dinner by bestowing upon him the Chuck Jordan Award for lifetime advocacy.

Edwards (who perfers to be called Papa Bear or just Bear) is a native of Nebraska who settled in San Antonio in the late 1970’s with his family. In the mid-1980’s he was looking to start his own business when his gay son suggested he open a gay bar. And so Papa Bear’s was born. The club, located on Broadway just south of Mahnke Park, became a popular neighborhood hangout.

As an avid reader, Edwards recalls that in the months after he opened the bar he began reading story after story in the New York Times and other newspapers about an illness that was affecting gay men on the East and West Coasts.

"I knew it was a matter of time before it would begin to affect the gay community in San Antonio," he says. "Since I was in the gay bar business, I decided that I needed to do something." In 1986 Edwards started the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, the city's first community based response to the epidemic.

"I can remember our first patient," says Edwards. "There was a young kid who lived up the block from the bar. He was in bad shape. My daughter and I went to his apartment, got him cleaned up and took him to the emergency room."

Edwards eventually rented a small house off Austin Highway where he cared for the Foundation’s clients. Volunteers, doctors and nurses donated their expertise, time and money to help those initial patients.

"My first employee was Fran Mendez," says Edwards. "I paid her $50 a week including room and board. The house would get so full that sometimes Fran had to sleep on the floor." Today, Mendez is the executive director of We Are Alive, a charity that helps people who face life threatening illnesses.

The house off Austin Highway existed with the full knowledge of local health officials who let it operate without zoning compliance. Foundation staff helped clients to sign up for Social Security, medical services and food stamps. "We were able to do the intake on premises because local agencies were nervous about having infected individuals come to their offices," says Edwards.

The fear of interacting with HIV-positive people was prevalent in the early days of the epidemic in San Antonio. Edwards recalls going to a local hospital to pick up a patient and being surprised by what he saw. "The nurses and staff were dressed in hazmat suits, standing outside the patient’s door looking into the room."

The epidemic continued unabated and the house off Austin Highway soon became too small to accommodate the many clients who sought help. Edwards rented a small office building located behind his bar and converted it into a hospice facility.

Edwards’ work with the Foundation became so time consuming that he decided to close his bar and made it into an office. An AIDS hotline that rang in the office and at Edwards’ home was installed. When the first HIV tests became available, Edwards initiated an anonymous testing program.

In addition running the Foundation, Edwards was a vocal advocate for those infected with HIV. "I had to fight a lot of homophobia and HIV-phobia," he says.

There was the case of a young soldier stationed at Ft. Hood in Kileen, Texas who went AWOL and fled to San Antonio to seek Edwards’ help, having grown despondent after being garrisoned in a barracks with other HIV-positive service members. Edwards sought leniency and help from the Army but the soldier was eventually discharged without medical benefits. (Click here for related story.)

Edwards recalls a speech he gave at St. Mary’s University where he advocated against a proposed plan by a state health official to quarantine HIV-positive patients, likening it to the quarantine of tuberculosis patients who at one time were not allowed to leave a hospital's fenced compound. He filed a complaint to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of a mother in Del Rio, Texas who could not get care for her infected son. He voiced his disapproval of a local shelter for battered women that allegedly turned away a woman with a nine-year-old hemophiliac son who was HIV-positive.

There were many such battles and Edwards became known for his outspoken boldness and persistence, not only in San Antonio but also among HIV advocates across the country.

In 1990, Edwards was driving along Grayson Street when he spotted an empty building that had once been a nursing home. He climbed in a broken window and walked around inside the dilapidated structure. "I could see beyond the mess," he says, "I knew it was perfect for our needs."

The Foundation purchased the building for about $500,000 and as luck would have it, an angel appeared in the form of Dan Bennett, a local businessman who paid for the cost of rehabilitating the structure. Today, the building on Grayson Street still serves as the San Antonio AIDS Foundation’s main office and is a legacy to Edwards’ stewardship.

Edwards retired in 1991 -- never having taken a salary for his work. He says the Foundation’s continued stability and expansion of services pleases him. When asked what prompted him in 1986 to take on such a difficult challenge, he recounts a story from his childhood days.

Around 1943, during World War II when he was a boy, Edwards witnessed a meeting between his father, who was a school superintendent, and members of the school board who wanted to expel some Japanese-American students from a local elementary school. This was at a time when the US was putting Japanese-American citizens in detention camps.

"Dad fought them. He said those kids had a right to go to school. He threatened to quit his job." The school board eventually voted to let the students remain. "That experience made an impression on me," says Edwards.

Human Rights Campaign San Antonio Gala and Silent Auction, Saturday October 23, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt, 600 East Market Street. Silent Auction at 6 p.m., Dinner at 7 p.m. and After Party at 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $175 (students $75), to purchase go to: SanAntonio.hrc.org/dinner.