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 | | Joe La Pat | | | Inducted 2008 [Posthumous] | | | Photo: HAL BAIM/WINDY CITY TIMES | | Joe La Pat (1943–2008), entrepreneur, for his generosity and wide-ranging support for Chicago’s LGBT community, including early key support for Proud to Run, Strike Against AIDS, Chicago House, Gay Games VII — especially for international athletes who participated — and the Center on Halsted. | |
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| Joe La Pat, born in 1943 in Racine,
Wisconsin, built a successful career, restored buildings in Chicago, and
supported organizations within LGBT
communities. He died unexpectedly on June 29,
2008—the day of Chicago’s annual Pride
Parade. Throughout his life, La Pat never sought
the limelight; he was always content to remain in
the background. But that did not keep him from
having an impact on countless lives, whether as
a volunteer, a donor, or a businessman. | |
| La Pat grew up poor; his mother raised him and three older sisters by herself after
his father committed suicide when La Pat was only three years old. He learned
the value of hard work and the importance of family and friends early on. In 1964
he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving a three-year tour of duty as a military
policeman with honor and distinction. | |
| Not long after his discharge from the Army, La Pat met Dick Uyvari. Their life
partnership flourished for 39 years and five weeks, as did their ongoing business
partnership. As openly gay urban pioneers, they helped revitalize Chicago's
Sheridan Park neighborhood by buying and restoring properties and by activity
in neighborhood associations. Their work was recognized repeatedly; in 1986,
for example, four Sheridan Park buildings the partners had restored were cited as
examples of historically significant structures in a petition for the
neighborhood's designation as a National Historic Landmark District. | |
| During the 1980s, La Pat and Uyvari became involved with LGBT sports and
fundraising, volunteering with the first and subsequent Proud To Run races,
helping to organize Strike Against AIDS, and supporting other LGBT charities,
ranging from the Lesbian Community Cancer Project to Howard Brown Health
Center to Chicago House to the Center on Halsted. After selling much of their
rental property in 2003, the couple ratcheted up their philanthropy, providing
early seed money for Gay Games VII at a time when there were doubts about the
ability of Chicago’s LGBT communities to make the Games a reality. Notably,
the couple’s personal donations and fundraising made it possible for the Chosen
Few lesbian soccer team from Soweto, South Africa, to attend the Games in
2006. They also provided approximately 80% of the Games’ Scholarship Fund,
which helped bring nearly 200 athletes from all over the world to Chicago. | |
| In a letter from the Chosen Few team written after La Pat’s death, Coach Leigh-
Ann Naidoo said: “I would like to thank Joe for role modeling a different way of
being a successful gay white male. And I hope that his life has inspired many of
you to be active citizens of our world, especially at this challenging time.” As a
citizen of Chicago and the world, Joe La Pat stands as an exemplary inductee into
the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. | |
| This biography is as of the induction date. It has not been updated. |
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