In 1985, as President of GAANJ, Franklin founded the state’s first HIV/AIDS support group, Buddies of NJ, formerly New Jersey Buddies. His vision and execution provided those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, a new and largely unknown disease at the time, with a structure to cope and seek treatment through people who would become friends & “buddies”. Establishing support houses, securing state grants and federal funding, educating at numerous high schools throughout the state, and rehabilitating literally thousands of people personally and in his own home, he helped change the world one person at a time. He’s been honored with hundreds of awards from Governors, Senators, Sheriffs, Churches, newspapers, and has been dedicated the Franklin A. Smith Resource Center in Hackensack, NJ. After 15 years as Executive Director, Frank retired on June 30th, 2000. More than 30 years later, this organization continues his vision.

Buddies was founded in Teaneck in 1985 by the late Franklin Smith, the president of the Gay Activists Alliance of New Jersey. He and friends saw the need for the organization while visiting hospitals in the 1980s to comfort young men dying of a baffling disease.

Franklin A. “Frank” Smith, born March 24th, 1934 in Bloomfield, New Jersey, passed away at the age of 81 on Wednesday, February 10th, 2016 in Port Charlotte, Florida.