Gay glass artist Bruce St. John Maher dies

by Cynthia Laird

Bruce St. John Maher, a gay man and glass artist, died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Monte Rio on April 9, Easter Sunday. He was 70.

Mr. Maher had suffered from several health issues over the years, including malignant hypertension, severe persistent asthma with acute exacerbation, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with exacerbation, stated Robert W. Ferren II, Mr. Maher’s friend and executor of his estate. Mr. Maher also had bladder and lung cancer that were in remission, Ferren stated.

During his life, Mr. Maher accomplished many things, Ferren wrote in an obituary, and fought injustices, mostly in Sonoma County, where he resided for many years.

“I am honored to have called Bruce St. John Maher a friend,” Ferren stated. “Never could someone have been more humble. I am not alone in saying that I will miss him dearly.”

Mr. Maher was born October 31,1952 in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Virginia Rose Harrington of Duluth, Minnesota, and Edward Urban Stephan Maher of Providence, Rhode Island. Ferren wrote that Mr. Maher didn’t have the greatest childhood. Even though his family was wealthy, he suffered a tortured upbringing. Mr. Maher’s father was a hotel manager and his parents moved from hotel to hotel with Mr. Maher often locked in a closet for hours at a time because his mother lacked the capacity to look after him, Ferren wrote.

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On June 5, Sister Roma joined Wiener and straight ally Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) to be honored as part of Pride Month.

As Mr. Maher approached adolescence his mother began to suspect that he was gay, and he was subjected to gay conversion treatments and treated with male hormones and electrical aversion techniques. This not only pushed Mr. Maher into earlier puber and heart damage, the obituary stated.

Mr. Maher ran away many times in his youth but finally made his lasting escape in 1965 at the age of 13, arriving in San Francisco, where he was embraced by the Beat community, the obituary stated. The hormone treatments had left him with a full beard and a deep voice, and he was able to pass as a grown man. Ferren wrote that Mr. Maher even lived with gay poet Alan Ginsberg for a time. According to the obituary, Mr. Maher also lived with Ram Dass and Wavy Gravy, with whom he would be bitten by the country bug.

The Sisters, which is an international organization, had been involved in a row of their own last month after the Los Angeles chapter was invited, disinvited, and then re-invited to the Los Angeles Dodgers Pride Night on June 16, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

Conservatives and right-wing Ro-

Glass art

Mr. Maher was a master glass artist. According to the obituary, Mr. Maher found his passion for the glass arts in San Francisco while walking down Haight Street in 1965 when he spotted a beautiful, but badly damaged, stained glass window. He had learned about stained glass and miniature arts from his grandparents, Edward and Helen Maher, renowned jewelers and enamelists for over 60 years in Providence. He resolved to repair the window and he did the job remarkably well so that the commission helped him start his first glass studio on Haight Street.

From 1970 to 1982, Mr. Maher expanded his knowledge as head of the restoration department at San Francisco Stained Glass. His amazing painting, repair, and exquisite window compositions were soon in high demand throughout the Bay Area and beyond, the obituary stated. When doing his stained glass repair, Mr. Maher studied the techniques and process that were used in the glass manufacturing at the time each piece was created. He learned the techniques of all the old masters, becoming an expert in Medieval Church stained glass, as well as 17th century Dutch Wedding windows.

According to the obituary, Mr. Maher was commissioned to work for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., conservator of the Axt Collection of Alta Dena, California, and many wealthy collectors. His works have been on display in the Corning Glass Mu- man Catholics had claimed they were a hate group, as they accuse them of mocking religion, including with their drag nun attire.

“The California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus is proud to honor Sister Roma for her tireless work raising millions of dollars to support HIV/AIDS patients, as well as creating the ‘Stop the