In Memoriam

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In recent days Wisconsin has suffered the loss of two significant LGBTQ community personalities. Gregg Eddie Carver Fitzpatrick, 69, owner of Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point watering hole, Harbor Room, died of complications due to COVID-19 on Dec. 12. Three days late, on Dec. 15, Madison political advocate, activist and historian, R. Richard “Dick” Wagner, 78, died of a heart attack.

Fitzpatrick’s passing was sudden. On Monday, Dec. 6, he posted an impatient message on social media “Please stop asking if I am in ICU. I am. Stop calling.” He had already been hospitalized for some days. Along with his terse, almost testy message, he mentioned his doctors’ expectation he would be out of the ICU by Dec. 19. However, the following Saturday Fitzpatrick posted a photo of himself intubated. He would die 24 hours later.

Fitzpatrick opened Harbor Room in 2000, celebrating its 21st anniversary earlier this year. Joining the city’s other Levi, leather and bear bars, Harbor Room soon found its niche, developing a loyal clientele of regulars. It offered rugged ambiance and a range of events that included its annual Mr. Harbor Room Contest, Halloween Costume Contests, karaoke nights as well as Thanksgiving and other holiday buffet dinners that provided a home away from home atmosphere for the bar’s family of patrons. Leading up to his hospitalization, Fitzpatrick posted photos on social media chronicling the ongoing progress of the bar’s Christmas decorations. 

Business and Pleasure

Like many bar owners, personal life and business often intermixed. Fitzpatrick’s long-term companion, Eddie Carver, was always part of the bar’s operation. The couple married in summer of 2016. Carver died suddenly five years later. Fitzpatrick’s grief was unrelenting and just days before coming down with COVID he posted a maudlin poem on death and the irreplaceable absence it creates.

The saddest aspect of this loss is that, nearly two years into the COVID pandemic, Fitzpatrick’s death coincided with the announcement of the nationwide toll of over 800,000 COVID deaths (100,000 of which in the last 11 weeks) with 50 million confirmed cases. Milwaukee’s numbers have been similarly high with nearly 400 new cases and several deaths reported daily. Many of these are deemed unnecessary due to a lack of mitigation.

The Harbor Room staff has promised to continue Gregg Fitzpatrick’s legacy and keep the bar open.

Working for Gay Rights

Beginning in the 1970s, “Dick” Wagner forged his role as a leader in the Madison LGBTQ community and beyond. Wagner served in various civic roles as a member and, for four years, as chair of the Dane County Board, on a range of political committees, as a fundraiser and volunteer for various organizations.

However, he is best known for his contributions to the state’s gay rights as a predicating force that brought about Madison’s city ordinance in 1974 and later, in 1980, a Dane County ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. He was also appointed by then Governor Tony Earl as co-chair of the Governor’s Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues, a body created as a result of Wagner’s investigations into the needs of the state’s LGBTQ community.

Wagner is also recognized as mentor to many of Wisconsin’s leading LGBTQ politicians including Senator Tammy Baldwin and US Representative Mark Pocan among many others.

His most recent contribution is his two-volume history of LGBTQ Wisconsin. We’ve Been Here All Along, published in 2019, and Coming Out, Moving Forward: Wisconsin’s Recent Gay History, released a year later, constitute the only comprehensive accounting of LGBTQ life in the Badger state. Its significance is not only as the culmination of Wagner’s five-decade long legacy, but also as a lasting resource for future generations finding their roots and identity in a now well documented past.

Inspired by gay political icon Harvey Milk, Wagner’s exemplary dedication to LGBTQ issues in Madison came to positively influence and change the lives of the LGBTQ community throughout Wisconsin.

While both Fitzpatrick and Wagner contributed LGBTQ life in entirely different and unique ways, they each represented the community and celebrated it. Their legacies have touched the lives of many.