George DeSipio Jr., 37, Living Proof Founder

George DeSipio Jr., one of the founders of Living Proof, a traveling exhibition of photographs of men, women and children who are infected with H.I.V. or who have AIDS, died on Saturday at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He was 37.

He died of complications from AIDS, his family said.

Mr. DeSipio worked as a fashion sales representative for Magali Collection Inc., a clothes manufacturer in Manhattan. He and a friend, Michael Liberatore, an art director for Brides magazine, conceived the Living Proof idea two years ago. The intention was to show that many H.I.V.-positive people lead productive and happy lives despite their illness.

Mr. DeSipio and Carolyn Jones, who took the photographs, put up notices around New York, asking people to pose. As the project progressed, Ms. Jones took pictures of people from around the country. The black-and-white portraits, sponsored by the Design Industries Foundation for AIDS, are currently touring 15 cities in the United States.

The photographs will be published in a book by Abbeville Press in March 1994.

Mr. DeSipio was a graduate of Columbia University.

He is survived by his parents, Carol and George; a sister, Sally DeSipio of Los Angeles, and his companion, Kevin Hall.

(New York Times, October 6, 1993, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final)

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