Born in 1938 in East Lansing, Michigan, Stephen P. Wilensky (1938-2018) received a Doctor of Medicine degree from University of Michigan in 1963. Dr. Wilensky worked as a diagnostic radiologist specializing in nuclear medicine, practicing with X-Ray Associates in Lansing and then with the Radiology Department of Michigan State University until his retirement in 2011. Dr. Wilensky began attending Pride events in the 1970s. In 1982 he met Mark S. Ritzenhein, the couple married in Vermont in 2010, and they remained together until Mark’s death in 2013.

A photography enthusiast, Dr. Wilensky chronicled events integral to his and Mark’s experiences as individuals and as a committed gay couple. Encompassing several decades, the photographs in this collection also chronicle changes as well as the growing LGBTQ+ presence in the United States.

In 2012, Stephen P. Wilensky and Mark S. Ritzenhein established the Wilensky-Ritzenhein Gay Book Endowment at MSU Libraries, and donated the Wilensky-Ritzenhein Gay Book Collection. The book collection comprises a wide range of topics that include gay fiction and literature, gay military history, cookery, religion and sexuality, art, and photography.

Also in 2012, they established the Wilensky-Ritzenhein LBGT Community Enrichment Endowment supporting the MSU Gender and Sexuality Campus Center, and the Ritzenhein-Wilensky Gay Collections Endowment at the MSU Museum.