Art Director, The Advocate

Served as Art Director of the national gay news magazine The Advocate from 1984 to 1986 — hired to turn the San Francisco–born tabloid into a standard glossy magazine after the operation moved to Los Angeles.

Poster Child: his first issue still ran as a tabloid with a glossy cover; he then separated the sex ads, built cover-story design, and briefly published fortnightly before stepping away once the redesign was done.

Jolino Beserra worked with him at The Advocate as well as through Byrd/Beserra Studios — the watercolor portrait here stands in until a verified Advocate cover scan is added to the estate image set.

Wikipedia and Playbill list the Advocate years as central LGBTQ editorial-design leadership, continuing the thread from Christopher Street (1976).

Chapter placement: Editorial leadership (1984–1986). This internal article expands the timeline card so “Read full article” never dead-ends on a teaser.

Sources used for this article: Poster Child · Los Angeles (p. 156); Wikipedia; Playbill.

For magazine and trade obituaries covering the full career arc and February 3, 2025 Albuquerque death, open the imported Press articles (Playbill, Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, Ultimate Classic Rock, Amsel tribute, NYT record).