Skip to content
Obituaries
Link copied to clipboard

Spencer Cox | AIDS activist, 44

AIDS activist Spencer Cox, 44, who helped form an organization to boost treatment research, died Tuesday of AIDS-related causes, according to his brother, Nick Cox.

AIDS activist Spencer Cox, 44, who helped form an organization to boost treatment research, died Tuesday of AIDS-related causes, according to his brother, Nick Cox.

Journalist and director David France said Mr. Cox can be seen in a documentary released this year about the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power called How to Survive a Plague.

Mr. Cox joined ACT-UP, known for its demonstrations and sit-ins and aggressive tactics seeking more resources for AIDS treatment and prevention, in 1989. He and other ACT-UP members formed the Treatment Action Group, known as TAG, to focus on accelerating treatment research, in 1992.

France said Friday that Mr. Cox "wound up consulting with Nobel Prize winners on novel approaches to attacking viruses, rebuilding immune systems and designing drug trials," France said.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the New York Times that Mr. Cox was always "very meticulous about getting good data rather than just screaming for getting something approved."

Mr. Cox is survived by his brother and mother. - AP