Born on January 2, 1920 as Issac Yudovich Ozimov in Russia, Issac Asimov went on to become one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century. In his time he wrote or edited over 500 books and was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University. While his life was well known and his legacy survives in books such as iRobot and the Foundation Series his death was purposefully obscured for a decade.
In 1977 Asimov had a heart attack and in 1983 triple bypass surgery. During the procedure he required a blood transfusion. When he died in 1992 his brother had reported that he died of heart and kidney failure. The truth was that he was one of the millions of victims of AIDS. At the time Asimov wanted to come forward and let the world know what had happened to him, but his doctors warned him against it for fear that anti-AIDS prejudice, which was prevalent at the time, would extend to his family. After Asimov's death, his family considered releasing the information, but the controversy which erupted after USA Today forced tennis player Arthur Ashe to announce his own infection convinced them not to.
Ten years later, after most of Asimov's doctors had died, it was decided that the truth would be made public.
-Professor Walter
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