Scott Barry, Being Alive Co-Founder, Dies at 32

Scott Barry, who abandoned his medical studies seven years ago after testing positive for the AIDS virus and became a spokesman for those afflicted with the fatal illness, died May 11 of the complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome at his Los Angeles home.

He was 32 and with Ron Rose and Rick Ewing in 1986 founded Being Alive, a support group for AIDS patients. Rose died of AIDS last month.

At the time of his death, Barry was secretary of Being Alive’s Board of Directors and a past president. Over the years the group has provided hope and counsel to hundreds of AIDS patients.

Barry said in a 1987 interview that “although our lives may be shorter, they can still be quality lives and productive.”

Barry went to West Germany in 1976 as a foreign exchange student and returned there two years later to study medicine at the University of Dusseldorf. After testing positive for the AIDS virus in 1981, he gave up his studies but remained in Germany as a speaker and source of information on the alarming and then new disease. He appeared on German TV talk shows and spoke to the German parliament. In 1986 he was awarded the German Medal of Honor, the youngest American ever to receive that award.

Barry returned to Los Angeles to form Being Alive, a group that encouraged AIDS patients to abandon their isolation and participate as fully in life as their health permitted. He also became a board member of AIDS Project/Los Angeles and was the subject of an eight-part series on AIDS broadcast over KCOP (Channel 13).

He and Rose also started the AIDS Candlelight March, the third of which will be held May 28 in Westwood.

Survivors include Mario Miera, his longtime companion, and his mother, Brenda Reed, a board member of Being Alive.