Partner Hal Lawson
Queer Places:
3080 Drexel St, Detroit, MI 48215
Rosehaven Manor, 3900 Hammerberg Rd, Flint, MI 48507
David Whitney Brewer
(February 28, 1921 - May 20, 2001) was founding vice chairman in 1958 of the Detroit Area Council of the Mattachine Society, the first known homosexual organization in the State of Michigan. David Brewer
was a retired Flint librarian.
Brewer was born Feb. 28, 1921 in Detroit. He served as a company clerk with the U.S. Army during World War II, graduated from Wayne State University on the GI Bill, and earned a Masters in Library Science degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He was employed as a reference librarian at the Detroit Public Library before moving to Flint in 1969 to work at the Flint Public Library. While in Detroit, Brewer joined Hal Lawson and Jerry "Jai" Moore in 1958 in founding a Detroit chapter for the San Francisco-based Mattachine Society. The Detroit affiliate, which survived with a small membership of a dozen or so gay men until March 1960, was the earliest known organization for homosexuals in Michigan.
During his retirement he remained active in the Unitarian Church and pursuing his love of the arts. He kept busy, as well, organizing the Detroit Mattachine papers for preservation in the Labadie Collection, speaking on college campuses, and participating in a monthly Over 50 and Under lesbian and gay social group. Into his late-seventies he prided himself in walking in the annual Crim Ten Mile Road Race.
Brewer died May 20, 2001 at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit following a series of strokes. He was survived by Lawson, his longtime companion.
My published books:
