Bruce B. Decker; Activist Served on State AIDS Panel

Bruce B. Decker, an AIDS activist and philanthropist who served four years as Gov. George Deukmejian’s chairman of the California AIDS Advisory Committee, has died of complications of the disease. He was 45.

Decker, who had lived in Washington and San Francisco during part of his political career, died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills.

In 1984, Deukmejian named him chairman of the statewide group set up by special legislation to advise the governor and the Legislature on the AIDS epidemic. A primary spokesman for legislation benefiting people with AIDS, Decker was founder and finance chairman of a campaign supported by Deukmejian to oppose Proposition 64. The measure, which would have included quarantining those with HIV and AIDS, was defeated in 1986.

Decker resigned his post two years later in opposition to Deukmejian’s support of another initiative, Proposition 102, which would have required disclosure of those testing positive for HIV and listing of their sexual contacts. Decker also worked to defeat that measure.

A conservative Republican, Decker worked as an advance man for President Gerald R. Ford, was an assistant to Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller, and in California worked for a host of prominent officeholders including Deukmejian and Gov. Pete Wilson.

Decker organized the annual Santa’s Helpers Holiday Party, which collects holiday baskets for distribution to homebound AIDS victims in the Los Angeles area. He also worked with actress Elizabeth Taylor and others to establish and promote the American Foundation for AIDS Research fund-raising organization, and was founder and president of the Health Policy and Research Foundation providing funding for AIDS-related projects.

Educated at the Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, Calif., and the Universities of Santa Clara and Denver, Decker was known for his self-deprecating wit, referring to himself in the days he chaired the state committee as “Deukmejian’s house fairy.”

He is survived by his parents and a sister.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation of Los Angeles.