AIDS ADVOCATE SUCCUMBS TO DISEASE

ST. LOUIS -- Theodore Fedler, founder of the Cape Girardeau-based AIDS Project of Southeast Missouri, died Wednesday afternoon at the John Cochran Veterans Administration Medical Center from AIDS-related complications. He was 47.

Fedler moved to Cape Girardeau from Iowa in April 1993, quickly starting the AIDS Project with his companion, Travis Clayton. The organization's mission was to educate Southeast Missouri residents about HIV and AIDS and to help people infected and affected by the disease.

Fedler received several state and local awards for his work, including one in November 1994 from the Missouri Department of Health and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. It recognized his work in AIDS education statewide.

He served on several other boards and assisted other Cape Girardeau organizations, including the Community Caring Council and the NAACP. But Fedler was best known and respected for doing AIDS education.

Judy St. John, director of the Center for Health and Counseling at Southeast Missouri State University, said Fedler spoke to more groups and did more outreach work than anyone before him.

"I was always impressed that if Ted found out about anyone living with AIDS or HIV, he personally contacted that individual," she said. "If that person was sick or dying, he sat vigil with the family."

Bob Dale, current AIDS Project president, said Fedler had an indescribable zest for life and "lived more in dying than most people do in living."

"Ted made people want to commit to fighting AIDS -- a disease not only devastating to the human body, but also to the spirit of mankind," Dale said. "If his death stands for anything at all, it stands as a call to the community to join the effort to fight AIDS."

Fedler served in the U.S. Navy and later was police chief of Kalona, Iowa, in the 1970s. In 1982, he moved to Dallas and worked for a number of security firms.

He returned to Iowa in 1991 and later supervised security operations for a Fort Madison, Iowa, riverboat gambling company.

He is survived by his parents, Ed and Delores Fedler of West Point, Iowa, and by many brothers and sisters.

More information, including the date and time for a memorial service in Cape Girardeau, will be available later.