Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 15:37:37 EST
From: CRLL21A@prodigy.com ( BEN MUNISTERI)


Steven J. Powsner, immediate past-president of the New York Lesbian 
and Gay Community Services Center, died of complications from AIDS at 
his home in New York City on November 20, 1995.  He died the day 
after his 40th birthday.

Mr. Powsner was an accomplished real-estate attorney who in 1984 
successfully negotiated the purchase of the building at 208 West 13th 
Street (which now houses the Center) from the City of New York.  He 
then joined the board of directors for three years.  He later re-
negotiated the Center's mortgage in 1988.

He was the only board member in the Center's history to be elected to 
two terms of office; for the last three years of his second term he 
served as the President of the board of directors.  His greatest 
accomplishment was founding the Center's capital campaign, "Center 
Challenge: The campaign for our Future."  Under his guidance and 
perserverance the Center launched earlier this year a $4 million 
fundraising effort to renovate its building -- a nineteenth century 
school house.  To date, Powsner and his colleagues have raised $1.5 
million.  He also ran the Center's Founders Society -- a fundraising 
program that solicits annual gifts from major donors.

Pownser was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Oceanside, Long 
Island.  He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude from New York 
University in 1976 and from NYU Law School in 1979.  At NYU he 
founded a group called Lesbian and Gay Law Students and developed the 
first all-day conference for lesbian and gay law students in New York 
City.  He also successfully pressured NYU Law School to adopt a 
policy that required law firms that recruited on campus to sign a non-
discrimination employment agreement that included sexual orientation. 
 In the late '70s he also served as treasurer for an early-movement 
group, the Coaltion for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

In 1985 Powsner provided the financial backing for the first lavender 
line to be painted down 5th Avenue for New York's annual Lesbian and 
Gay Pride March.

He is survived by his lover of 7 years, Ben Munisteri, who took care 
of him during his illness.  They shared a home in Manhattan's 
Greenwich Village and one in the Fire Island Pines.  After Powsner's 
death, Munisteri was quoted in Long Island Newsday as saying "I don't 
know anyone who's done more unremunerated volunteer work to make sure 
gay and lesbian people have some place to go to feel safe and 
supported."

Donations in Steven Powsner's name may be given to the Lesbian and 
Gay Community Services Center, 208 West 13th Street, New York, NY 
10011.