Charles Farthing, MD, an early HIV/AIDS physician and the former chief of medicine for AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), has died, FrontiersLA.com reports. AHF president Michael Weinstein released a statement Sunday, April 6, confirming his passing.

Farthing grew up in Christchurch, New Zealand, and started his medical career in the country as a dermatologist. After seeing patients with HIV in England in the 1980s, he organized one of the first AIDS clinics in that country.

In 1988, he studied HIV at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, eventually becoming director of its AIDS program. In 1994, Farthing left New York for Los Angeles to further his HIV/AIDS research. He joined Los Angeles–based AHF in 2001.

At the time of his death, he was the Asia Pacific director of medical affairs for HIV and anti-infectives at Merck Sharp & Dohme, GayNZ.com reports. He will be laid to rest in New Zealand. He is survived by his spouse Doug Louie and other family.

To read the Frontiers article, click here.

To read the GayNZ.com article, click here.