John Cunningham is a founder and past board member of the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund (DVLF), a community-based donor-advised fund for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities at The Philadelphia Foundation. He has served as Co-Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center Board and was among the founders of the AIDS Library of Philadelphia, now part of Philadelphia FIGHT, and From All Walks of Life, now The AIDS Fund. In 2004, he served as Co-Grand Marshall, with Kay Lahusen, of Philadelphia’s Gay Pride Parade. John worked at The Free Library of Philadelphia for over 30 years, retiring from the position of Chief of Branch and Regional Libraries in 2003. His early library activism included participating during the 1970s in the American Library Association’s Gay Task Force where he helped pioneer the examination of lesbian and gay themes in adolescent literature. In 1979, John co-authored, with Frances Hanckel, A Way of Love, A Way of Life: A Young Person’s Introduction to What It Means to be Gay. The book was named to the prestigious Best Books for Young Adults list for that year.
