Nimrod Ping
Nimrod Ping (19 September 1947 - 3 July 2006) was a British architect, politician and gay activist in Brighton, Sussex, England.
Nimrod Ping | |
---|---|
Born | 19 September 1947 |
Died | 3 July 2006 |
Education | Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe Cardiff University |
Occupation | Architect, politician, gay activist |
Biography
Early life
After attending the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe from 1964 to 1966 he studied architecture at Cardiff University.[1]
Career
As an architect, he designed a Sainsbury's supermarket in Lewes Road, Brighton.[2]
Politics
Ping served as a councillor at the former Brighton Borough Council (now Brighton and Hove) for eight years from 1991 to 1999.[3] He became chairman of the Council's planning committee and of the licensing committee.[2] Thanks to his unusual name, he achieved national fame after the BBC Radio 2 presenter Terry Wogan used his name as scale against which to compare other interesting names.[2]
He was one of the first openly gay councillors in Britain.[3] He took part in Brighton's "Gay Pride" events for a number of years.[2] He convinced other councillors to allow gay clubs in Brighton to stay open after midnight.[4]
He was diagnosed as suffering from Hepatitis C in the late 1990s.[3] He became known locally as the face of southern England's Hepatitis C Campaign[5] and was the face of Brighton and Hove's leading shopping centre for a while during which the shopping centre joined his appeal in return for having a leading politician's support.
Originally a Labour Party supporter, he joined the Green Party a few months before his death.[6]
Death
He died of hepatitis-related liver failure in 2006.[2] His funeral took place at St Margaret's Church in Rottingdean on 20 July 2006.[7]
References
- Royal Grammar School High Wycombe: School List for Autumn Term 1965
- "Tributes to former councillor". The Argus. 5 July 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
- Cohen, Benjamin (5 July 2006). "Gay campaigner Nimrod Ping dies aged 46". Pink News. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
- Janet Cameron, LGBT Brighton & Hove, Amberley Publishing Limited, 2013
- Trust, Hepatitis C. "Hepatitis C Trust | News | Awareness campaign highlights blood disease-Brighton Argus". hepctrust-archive.nam.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- "Gay campaigner Nimrod Ping dies aged 46". PinkNews. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
Mr Ping was one of the first Brighton councillors to come out and defected from the Labour party to the Greens in January of this year.
- Rose Collis, Death and the City: The nation's experience, told through Brighton's history, Hanover Press, 2013, p. 29