Jeffrey Schmalz; Reporter Wrote Movingly of Having AIDS

Jeffrey Schmalz, 39, New York reporter who wrote about having AIDS. “To have AIDS is to be alone, no matter the number of friends and family members around,” he wrote movingly last December for his employer, the New York Times. “Then, to be with someone who has HIV, be it interviewer or interviewee, is to find kinship.” Schmalz, who was born in Abington, Pa., began his two-decade career at the Times in 1973 as a night copy boy while studying economics at Columbia University. He worked his way up as a regional editor, metropolitan news reporter, head of the paper’s Albany, N.Y., bureau, bureau chief in Miami and deputy national editor. In 1990, he suffered a brain seizure at his desk that led to the discovery that he had AIDS. After taking a year off to battle the disease, he returned to work to cover AIDS and gay issues. On Nov. 6 in New York City of AIDS.