Bud Osborn

Bud Osborn (4 August 1947 – 6 May 2014) was a poet, community organizer, and activist in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Following his prolonged struggle with heroin addiction and alcohol dependency, Osborn became a founding member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and advocated for the creation of a legal supervised injection site. His poetry commented on poverty and homelessness in Vancouver.

Life Osborn was born as Walton Homer Osborn III in Battle Creek, Michigan, to Patricia Osborn (née Barnes) and Walton Homer Osborn II. He spent his childhood in a rough area of Toledo, Ohio, where a neighborhood friend nicknamed him "Bud". His father, who had been a pilot and German prisoner in World War II, was a reporter for the Toledo Blade. Walton Osborn committed suicide in jail when Bud Osborn was three years old. He died on 6 May 2014 at the age of 66 after being hospitalized for pneumonia and a heart condition, and was remembered at a street memorial attended by 200 people.