Jon Reed Sims

Jon Reed Sims (May 6, 1947 – July 16, 1984), was an American choir conductor born in Smith Center, Kansas. He founded several gay and lesbian musical groups, including the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps, which was the first openly gay musical organization in the world, and the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Sims died in 1984 from complications from AIDS.

Early life and education Sims was born on May 6, 1947 on a farm near Lebanon, Kansas. His family later moved to a farm closer to Smith Center. His father was a wheat farmer. From an early age, relatives noted Sims' musical talent and enthusiasm. He started taking piano lessons at the age of 6 and named his 4-H livestock after music composers.

Sims attended Fort Hays State University, then transferred to Wichita State University, where he received a Bachelor of Music in French horn and B.A. in theory and composition in 1969. Upon moving to San Francisco, he taught high school band at in Daly City between 1974 and 1978. In Summer 1979, Sims directed the band in the first of several annual Gay Musical Celebrations for Pride Month. The Chorus made its unplanned debut a mere four weeks later, on November 27, 1978, when its members sang on the steps of the San Francisco City Hall at an impromptu memorial for Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, who had been assassinated earlier that day. Sims stayed on to appoint a new director for the SFGMC, Dick Kramer, who helped helm the formal inaugural performance of the 115-voice SFGMC and the Marching Band at Everett Middle School on December 20, 1978.

Sims received the Keys to the City from then-Mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein.

Illness and death Sims, who complained some two years earlier of exhaustion, was diagnosed with AIDS in January 1984. Six months later, he died of the little-known disease on July 16 at Garden Sullivan Hospital in San Francisco at the age of 37. Jon Reed Sims is buried at Fairview Cemetery at Smith Center, Kansas.

Legacy Sims was commemorated by San Francisco's Rainbow Honor Walk, with a plaque to be installed upon fundraising. In 2019, a piano belonging to Sims was donated to the National LGBTQ Center for the Arts.

The Jon Sims Endowment Fund for the Performing Arts, established in 1989, grants funds to LGBTQ+ performing arts organizations in honor of Sims.