Hippler, Mike

Your were a great friend & always fun to hang out with. I've missed you for such a long time now !

Mike Hippler was funny funny man. He was a wonderful writer and very good company. We had fun together yelling at the Pope to go home in front of Mission Dolores when that unfortunate man made his appearance in San Francisco. I spent time with his sister and our bud Dede as we tried to assuage our grief after his death by watching old videos of Mike. We laughed a lot but chills ran up my spine when we watched Mike, in one video, playing Nearer My God to Thee. Mike. I still remember you.

Michael was a good friend. I'm remembering him fondly this Gay pride month and thinking about how this city seems a little empty without him. David

Think about you a lot Mike, and the Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and jungle red and Shakespeare Garden and your car that I ruined and so much more.

I have reread Mike's book of essays, ...So Little Time: Essays on Gay Life, and I highly recommend it to those who want to know more about this astute gay man as well as San Francisco in the 1980s. His book has some 50 essays, but he wrote many, many more. I wish someone would publish those other gems that are now only accessible on microfilm (see the B.A.R. reels) at the Main San Francisco Public Library.

By (a very fortunate) chance, I stumbled upon an article written by Mike Hippler that he wrote for his good friend (and ex-boyfriend) Dennis C. Mike wrote this almost 30 years ago, yet it could have been written yesterday. The sentiment he so clearly expressed touched my heart in a way quite surprising to me. Unfortunately, I never knew Mike but I certainly would have loved to. He was a man of deep conviction, he had an amazing way with words and emotion, and I am sure he is dearly missed by all who knew him. Mike has been gone for 22 years now, after living a very short life. As a testimony to this very dynamic, prolific man, I find the fact he can still touch the hearts of so many with his words written a quarter of a century ago amazing and inspiring. I strong urge all of you to obtain copies of books written by Mike and learn from his expressive narratives as I intend to do. I am 61 years old now and he has transported me back to a very difficult, yet memorable time in my life-a time of great fun yet great sadness for all of our wonderful friends we have loved, lost, and have never forgotten. I look forward to the day I will meet Mike and give him the praise he so rightfully deserves. God bless you Mike.

When I think of Mike, I truly wonder why I am still here, on this earth? I met him the summer of 1982, when I applied at the CASTRO GARDENS restaurant. He was a very cute waiter there, but a bit fem for me, with that sassy southern drawal. He copied my phone number from my application and called me. That led to many things, most of all a true friendship. He and I were similar in build and coloring, which he loved. He was most likely one of the funniest and intelligent men I have known. He tried so desperately to make me his lover/partner, but I was resistant for a variety of reasons - one being his promiscuous behavior (forgive me Mike, you always loved honesty)! He was great, as a friend, to share times with, playing tennis with in Buena Vista Park, going to films together. I remember when we both began to exhibit symptoms of being a bit sick. He wanted me to stick around all the time and started becoming too possesive. He would get so angry with me, because I was very independent and I felt he was clinging too much. I also remember his car, that convertible he christened the Jaynemobile, because it was just like the car that Jayne Mansfield was killed in.What a tank! I loved going to the opera and theatre with him. So bright and knowledgeable about many things. I saw him several years prior to his passing,he was so weak and had a hard time walking,easily becoming out of breath. I felt so terrible for him, because I was still robust and not showing any signs of wasting, as he was. I had returned as a student at CAL Berkeley, which made him happy (I was an English Lit major, too). I will never forget him, NEVER! I know I am in his journals, Fllder 8 at GBLY archives. Onlly God knows what he wrote about me. I seem to remember some of it, when I house sat for him He said,Oh by the way you're in Journal #__, you can read it. I did, but I think I was a bit taken aback. But can't help loving him. I am now 62 years old and think of all the young

For a different perspective from his high school classmates, search Mike Hippler Sandy Springs GA 1970. For example, Mike befriended a boy with a learning disability and made a lifetime friend.

Miss you, Cousin, & your ways of insisting on going beyond the boundaries of Appropriate or Proper. You were the glamorous cousin, older and worldly and oh did you ever piss those Aunts off. And we loved you so. I wish you could have seen Facebook and Twitter - you would have been all over it. I don’t even want to consider what you’d have to say about Trump. You would have been all over that, too. XO