Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994                   TAG: 9412060028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Medium

ELIZABETH GLASER, AIDS ACTIVIST, DIES

Glaser, wife of actor Paul Michael Glaser, died at her Santa Monica home of complications from AIDS, said Carol Pearlman, a close friend and associate at the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which Elizabeth Glaser co-founded.

Glaser electrified the 1992 Democratic convention with her account of her family's confrontation with the virus.

``I am here tonight because my son and I may not survive another four years of leaders who say they care - but do nothing,'' she said. ``A thousand points of light [President Bush's volunteerism phrase] just wasn't enough. My house has been dark for too long.''

She brought many members of audience to tears speaking of the death of her 7-year-old daughter Ariel from AIDS:

``She taught me to love when all I wanted to do was hate; she taught me to help others when all I wanted to do was help myself.''

In 1981, when Glaser was nine months pregnant with Ariel, her first child, she began bleeding and was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she was given seven pints of blood. The baby was delivered successfully.

Three weeks later, Glaser read a newspaper article telling of the dangers of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from blood transfusions. She said her doctor reassured her and she was not tested for the virus.

Four years later, Ariel became seriously ill. Hospital tests found her red blood count low but doctors assured recovery. Four months after that, doctors finally tested the family for the human immunodeficiency virus.

Glaser tested positive, and she had passed the virus to Ariel through her breast milk. She had also given the virus to her second child, Jake. Her husband was the only family member who remained uninfected.

Jake, 10, has shown no signs that he has developed AIDS.

After Ariel died, Glaser went to Washington to lobby members of Congress. A friend arranged a White House meeting with President Reagan and his wife, Nancy.

Glaser concluded that the administration wasn't doing enough, made friends in Congress, and got the budget for pediatric AIDS raised from $3.3 million to $8.8 million.