In Loving Memory of
Burnell E. Ehrhart
February 19, 1936 - May 1, 2004
The article below was published on the front page of the
May 4, 2004 edition of The York Dispatch
Activist Ehrhart Dies at 68
Founded GUSH to help AIDS victims
By TED CZECH Dispatch/Sunday News
The man called Burnell "Berni" Ehrhart and asked him to pay a visit to the caller's son, who was dying of AIDS. Ehrhart was well-known in York County's gay community, and the man thought his son might feel a sense of comfort talking to Ehrhart.
Ehrhart stayed with the man who had AIDS, holding him when just about everyone else wore latex gloves and kept him at arm's length. Just before the man's death, Ehrhart asked him, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Do the most you can for people in my situation," he said.
Not long after the AIDS patient died, Ehrhart started GUSH, or Give Us Hope, a volunteer organization dedicated to serving those who were stricken with AIDS or were HIV-positive. The group provided its clients with transportation, housing, food, clothing, medicine and counseling.
From 1988 when he started the organization, until about 1995, Ehrhart saw nearly 100 people he cared for die from complications brought on by AIDS, said Ehrhart's brother, Greg Ehrhart. For his efforts, Ehrhart received the Thousand Points of Light award from President George Bush.
On Saturday, Ehrhart, 68, died after years of suffering from diabetes, congestive heart failure and stroke.
"There was nobody like him," said Ehrhart's mother, Helen Ehrhart. "He didn't ever talk a bad word about anyone."
Greg Ehrhart described his brother as having "so much charm you couldn't package it."
Life partners for life:
Forty-seven years ago, Ehrhart met his life partner, Rodney Nagle, in a bar in York City.
"Everything clicked, we were so much alike," to the point of finishing each other's sentences, said Nagle.
Ehrhart graduated from Millersville University in 1958 and began teaching grade school in Central School District, but he and Nagle also had two entrepreneurial ventures. During the 1960s, they established a local chain of record stores, called "Disc-O-Rama," located in places such as Dallastown, York, and Harrisburg.
They also started Altland's Ranch, an indoor-outdoor venue that featured music, dancing and a dinner theater, on a 6-acre plot they owned in Spring Grove. The two made their home in an apartment above the ranch's bar.
Ehrhart enjoyed taking care of the grounds, especially a koi pond he built.
"Right now, the grass is getting high -- if he was here, he'd be mowing," said Nagle.
Ehrhart was a natural entertainer, to the point that he used to turn off the radio in the car and say, "We don't need that -- I'm here to entertain."
Greg Ehrhart said that in 1992, he was able to secure a speaking engagement for his brother at a meeting of Discovery, a singles group in York. Ehrhart delivered a lecture to nearly 400 people at the meeting, talking about the effects of AIDS and the lives it had claimed.
"He had them laughing and crying in five minutes' time," Greg Ehrhart said.
Series of illnesses:
Ehrhart remained close with his family and became more dependent on his family's help in recent years.
Ehrhart suffered a heart attack in 1995. Two years before that, he had quadruple bypass surgery, and was advised by his doctor to reduce stress in his life, namely GUSH.
"It upset him -- he always wanted to do for people," said Nagle of the doctor's suggestion.
Ehrhart also suffered a stroke several years ago, the day a pacemaker was surgically implanted. The stroke caused Ehrhart to walk with a cane and to slur his words.
"He never complained about anything," said Helen Ehrhart. "If we'd laugh about getting his words twisted up, he'd laugh along with us."
