Throughout PGN’s 40 years, our pages have carried countless obituaries on members of our community. As a community newspaper, we have remained committed to offering this service free of charge to our readers, to help them share the news and to memorialize the life of their loved one. Occasionally, we have had to report on the loss of some of our own staff members. Here are a few of the PGN employees who left their mark on us.
Frank Broderick (February 1993, age 38): Broderick was a writer and later an associate editor of PGN from 1976 through the early 1980s before going on to co-found Au Courant.
Brian Caffall (May 2003, age 56): Caffall was a local freelance writer who contributed stories to PGN, Philadelphia Weekly and City Paper and also worked as an HIV/AIDS educator.
John Keith Clark (May 2003, age 61): Clark was PGN’s editor and co-owner at its inception in 1976. He later served as managing editor and writer, as well as a contributor to other LGBT publications such as the Bay Area Reporter.
Harry Eberlin (December 2006, age 69): Eberlin was PGN’s first photographer and was integral in documenting some of the city’s early LGBT developments.
Harry Langhorne (May 2001, age 53): Langhorne was the former president of Gay Activist Alliance and a member of the Gay Raiders. He started as a writer in PGN’s first year and later became political editor.
John Mandes (September 2008, age 55): Mandes was a PGN editor from 1991-93, after starting as a reporter. He is credited with heightening the publication’s emphasis on design.
Jan Sergienko (November 1978, age 26): Sergienko was PGN staff writer in its earliest years and an active member of the National Organization for Women.
Mpozi Tolbert (July 2006, age 34): Tolbert was a freelance photographer for PGN in the 1990s. His photos were also published by the New York Times, Associated Press, Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.
Sally Tyre (August 1983, age 40): Tyre was a PGN advertising representative and later advertising manager and consultant from the late 1970s to early 1980s. She ran the private lesbian club Mamzelle’s in the mid-’80s.
Stanley Ward (August 2010, age 67): Ward served as PGN editor from 1983-88, guiding the paper through its coverage of the beginning of the AIDS crisis.
Joel Weiner (April 2009, age 59): Weiner was a member of PGN’s advertising staff from 1997-2009, serving as advertising director for five years before his retirement.