Charles Emerson ``Charlie'' LeClair Jr., an HIV/AIDS activist who fought for others suffering from the disease he contracted in the early 1990s, died Sept. 9. He was 56.

LeClair was named chairman of the Miami-Dade HIV/AIDS Partnership in 2005 and 2006, more than a decade after the New England transplant became an advocate who ``worked diligently . . . with case management companies, food banks, health department officials, political candidates'' and patients, said friend Robert Hyde.

The Partnership administers the federally-funded Ryan White Program in Miami-Dade, which provides services to needy HIV/AIDS patients.

LeClair also served as president of the Episcopal Interfaith AIDS Ministry based at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and on the board of the Unity Coalition of Miami-Dade, a human-rights group focused on issues within the Hispanic gay/lesbian community.

`ALWAYS VOCAL'

On its website, the Coalition remembered him as an ``always present, always vocal. . .fixture at city hall, serving on various boards and commissions.

``Charlie was part of our first-ever [Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender] Lobby Day in Tallahassee in 2002 and was instrumental in helping pass the county HIV/AIDS prevention signage ordinance,'' which mandated health warnings in Spanish.

LeClair died in his bed, apparently of a heart attack, at the downtown Miami River Park Apartments. President of the residents' council, he helped secure 15 flats for people with HIV/AIDS.

He had stopped taking AIDS medications about two weeks before his death, believing he would be better able to battle serious heart problems without their complications, friends said.

BLESSING, CURSE

LeClair found his life-prolonging medications both a blessing and a curse. Last year, he told The Miami Herald that AIDS awareness and prevention campaigns weren't realistic because they tend to feature ``good looking'' models seemingly unscathed by their disease or the drugs used to treat it.

Drugs help people live longer, he said, but ``the side effects become unbearable: neuropathy, diarrhea, headaches, fatigue, nausea. Advocates like myself are getting sick and tired of saying the same thing. Consumers need to get involved . . . If not, their silence will equal death.''

LeClair came to South Florida from Quincy, Mass., where friends say he worked for a security company. Cousin Terence Sullivan, of Pembroke Pines, said LeClair intentionally distanced himself from his life in the Northeast because ``all of his friends were dead.''

His relatives loved him, Sullivan said, and he was always a welcome and ``entertaining'' addition to family gatherings.

Close friend Dee Dee Cullers, a Miami River Park resident, said LeClair ``really loved his family, but when he came out, he wanted a new life and a new place to live.''

He contracted HIV in Miami Beach, said his friend Dr. Manuel Laureano-Vega, executive director of the League Against AIDS Inc. LeClair soon threw himself into activism on behalf of people afflicted with the incurable disease.

``He was always very compassionate and worried about their needs,'' Laureano-Vega said. ``He was very tenacious and caring about his fellow [people with AIDS] and made sure they were taken care of.''

LeClair pushed for more county funding of AIDS services, concerned that if Ryan White money dried up, 25,000 patients would find themselves unable to pay for housing and treatment.

Fellow advocate Louis Robinson said LeClair ``worked on trying to maintain services for [Partnership] clients, especially medical services, home-delivered meals, housing -- anything that Ryan White would cover.

``There weren't enough people fighting for the downtrodden, so he took it upon himself to do the work not many would do. Against all odds, he'd go out and fight.''

LeClair is survived by his mother, Betty LeClair, of Massachusetts. Visitation is planned for 7-10 p.m. Thursday at Funeraria Memorial Plan, 1717 SW 37th Ave. Funeral services follow at 11 a.m. Friday at Trinity, 464 NE 16th St., with entombment at Dade Memorial Park.

Donations are welcome for the Trinity Episcopal Outreach Ministry.