Richard Walton Hewetson

Born in Harvey, Illinois, on March 31, 1930. He attended public schools in Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.          

After a brief two years working in the freight traffic department of the Milwaukee Road, he "received the call" to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church.

He received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and an M.Div from Seabury‑Western Theological Seminary in Evanston,Illinois, in 1957. After serving churches Minnesota and Wisconsin. He left the parish ministry in 1968 to take a position with the Minnesota Department of Employment Security.

He ceased attending church in 1972.

Dick met David Irwin in the summer of 1975. They bought a condominium in January 1976 as lived as a couple until 1984. In 1983, Dick assisted David Irwin in incorporating Quatrefoil Library. The library opened to the public in February 1986 in the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union building at 1021 West Broadway in Minneapolis. It moved to a larger space in St. Paul, and  again to larger quarters in a new building at 1220 East Lake Street in Minneapolis. It has become one of the largest lending libraries and resource centers on and for sexual minorities in North America.

In 1992, he retired from the Minnesota Department of Jobs and Training and moved to San Francisco, California.

 

During retirement he:

• Worked as a resident coordinator for Elderhostel in the San Francisco Bay Area.

• Created a group of Gay and Lesbian Atheists and Humanists in 1995. It now meets at the LGBT Center in San Francisco.

• Volunteered in the library of the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, an elementary school in San Francisco.

• Volunteered at Gay and Lesbian Outreach to Elders and its successor New Leaf Outreach to Elders where he facilitated a support group for gay men with clinical depression.

• Has been involved with the Center for Learning in Retirement (CLIR) where he helped edit their newsletter, The Voice, taught a class on the Bible as Literature, facilitated computer workshops, and taught American Standard Bridge.

Volunteered at San Francisco State University Psychiatric Nursing Class as a patient with mental illness.

• Worked with the Outlook Theater Project on the play “This Many People.” He created the character Joe. He also played Joe for a work in progress performance for the Queer Arts Festival in 2009. The play performed to four sold-out audiences in June 2010.

Spoke on a regular basis. to Evangelical Christian high school students as a gay atheist.

• Volunteered during the tourist season as a “Castro Ambassador” providing tourist information in the Castro District of San Francisco.

• Served for many years on the National Board of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Has been a member since 1978.

• Listed in Who’s Who in Hell.

In February 2010 Dick met John Vu.  They have been in a loving relationship ever since!