#PaulWynne was a #broadcastjournalist whose on-the-air diary about #AIDS made television history. He died of AIDS at the #VeteransAffairsMedicalCenter on July 5, 1990, aged 47. . Wynne was born in #Shenandoah, #Iowa, and grew up in #Hillsboro, Ore. He received a bachelor's degree in theater from #WillametteUniversity in #Salem, Ore. then served in the Army, where he began his journalism career. In 1979, after leaving the military, he moved to San Francisco, where he held a series of jobs at local television stations . Wynne, an entertainment reporter for #SanFrancisco television stations from 1972 to 1984, returned to the air in January 1990 with ''Paul Wynne's Journal,'' a firsthand account of his fears and triumphs as he moved toward death. . The diary won rave reviews from television critics in the area. And KGO-TV, the local ABC affiliate that broadcast the journal, received scores of telephone calls and letters, a vast majority praising the station for its courage and Wynne for putting a face on the disease. . While the diary was available to other stations across the country, only one other broadcast it. . The series was taped from Wynne's hospital bed as his health deteriorated. Early in the series Wynne said he would not surrender to the paraphernalia of advanced AIDS but in a later segment he acknowledged that he had moved ''into the wheelchair phase.'' In another late segment, his face gaunt and his eyes hollow, Wynne told viewers, ''I'm very sick and I'm very weak; my life is very joyless and I'm very afraid.'' In 1984, while working at KGO-TV, the station decided not to renew his contract. After that he received no offers for on-the-air work and was unemployed.
