Robert Massa; Writer and Editor, 36

Robert Massa, a writer about AIDS and an editor with The Village Voice, died yesterday at St. Vincent's Hospital. Mr. Massa, who lived in Manhattan, was 36.

The cause was AIDS, said a friend, Eileen Blumenthal.

In 1987, Mr. Massa founded a newsletter, The Body Positive, a publication about AIDS, and continued with it until 1989.

Mr. Massa joined The Village Voice in 1982 as a writer and became that publication's associate editor in charge of AIDS coverage in 1989. In 1992 he was a senior editor for news and features.

He was a 1979 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and received a master's degree in English from Columbia University.

He is survived by his companion, Perry Halkitis of Manhattan; his parents, Andrew and Irene Massa of Clark, N.J.; two brothers, John, of Tucker, Ga., and the Rev. James Massa of Wichita, and a sister, Kathleen Lutkenhouse of Westfield, N.J.

(New York Times, Monday, April 10, 1994, Sunday, Late Edition - Final)

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