Obiturary from

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/LOYD-John-Robinson-2711475.php

LOYD, John Robinson - Was born April 14, 1944 and died on Friday, September 13, 2002, a date which I'm sure he would have felt was appropriate. John was 58, and for the last seven years had been struggling with a cancer he knew to be absolutely terminal. Up until the end he both accepted and denied his condition. His cancer had been in remission for about a year and a half before it came back, and he briefly hoped it had been cured. Beginning in February 2002 it returned and moved into his brain. Despite this, to the end he was lucid, patient with others, gracious and appreciative of all of his friends and caregivers. John was adopted and never knew his birth parents. He tried to find them, but at the time was told that the records for Cook County, IL were sealed. His adoptive parents, Eve and Vern Loyd lost him as a son when they tried to incarcerate him in a mental institution and to convince the medical staff to perform a frontal lobotomy on him. John become the second child to be legally emancipated in tie state of Connecticut, thanks in great part to the help of the Norman Cousins family. He spent his early years in New Canaan, CT, then moved to Hartford, CT then to New York City, San Francisco, back to Hartford, New York, and San Francisco again, where he had resided since 1984. John's formal education ended when he graduated from Cheshire Academy, but his entire life was spent in learning. An avid reader and follower of current events, John could discourse an anything from the Trilateral Commission to the writings of Richard Stark. Music was his personal passion. He played outstanding blues and jazz guitar and listened to a range of music that encompassed jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, classical, and Indonesian Gamelan. Despite the fact that the family that adopted him led a life of privilege and wealth, John was a committed Socialist who often worked at minimum wage or commission only jobs, far below his intellectual capacity, and saw this as an aspect of solidarity. John was a library page, a bike messenger, a motorcycle messenger, a mail room clerk, a security guard, and lastly a walking messenger for the past 10 years. He was active in messenger organizing efforts, and volunteered as an escort for those being harassed at abortion clinics. Unsentimental to the end, John donated his body to medical science, specifically the same hospital where so much was done to try to save his life. John was married twice, but had no children. During the last four months of his life. John received excellent physical care, but more importantly, immeasurable mental and spiritual support at the "Coming Home" Hospice in San Francisco. He also received and was grateful for the love and care of many friends and co-workers, his therapist, and caregivers from the Haight Ashbury Medical Clinic. Of special help and encouragement to John were his friends Markos Chimes, Natasha Dedrick, Todd Sanchioni, and Earl Gilman, and his friend Shelly Warwick of New York City. He has no relatives but leaves a large and varied circle of friends who mourn his passing, and will miss his warm presence, sly wit, wicked laugh, on-going and perceptive critiques of "the system" and of course, his music. Rest in peace, John. You've earned it.