University of Arizona

Students, faculty, staff, and the public are now welcome to visit Special Collections without an appointment from 9 am to 4 pm, Monday through Friday.

Bruce Cole papers

A black and white photograph of Richard Heakin, a gay man murdered in a Tucson hate crime in 1976 and a pamphlet of LGBTQ resources from the organization Wingspan.

The Bruce Cole papers contain information on the Richard Heakin Murder (a hate crime committed against a gay man in 1970s Tucson), Wingspan Anti Violence Project, and the Tucson Commission on (GLBT). Bruce Cole, a Tucsonan who witnessed the Richard Heakin murder, was a member of the Richard Heakin Memorial Committee, and was involved with the LGBTQ community. This collection is part of the Arizona Queer Archives (AQA), a community-focused archive through the Institute for LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona. It was transferred to Special Collections in 2020.