William "Bill" Beachler died on January 11, 2016 at the age of 70. He was a former employee of the Michigan Department of Transportation, MSU alumni, and one of the earliest members of LAHR, joining in February 1980 and serving as LAHR secretary since 1981 and publisher of the LAHR newsletter. He was a founding member of the LAHR-PAC since 1981. In the 1980s, his political activism focused on the arrests of gay men and he lead lobbying which resulted in Michigan's first funding to fight AIDS. He received the James Dressel Award from the Michigan Organization for Human Rights (MOHR) and LAHR's Prism Award in 1997. He served fourteen years as an East Lansing city commissioner, with eight years as Chairperson for the Planning Commission. He was involved in the Lansing Equal Rights Task Force work on civil rights ordinance, National Organization for Women (NOW), Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Lambda Legal Defense Fund, Lansing Mayors Advisory Board on Concerns of Lesbian & Gay Citizens, Pride PAC of Michigan, Secretary of the MSU GLBT Alumni Association, and helped bring the statewide Michigan Pride March to Lansing in 1989. In addition to his work with LAHR, Beachler created the Pride Scholarship Fund at Michigan State University for LGBT students.