The Dallas community is mourning the unexpected loss of Kirk Myers-Hill, a Black gay advocate who founded Abounding Prosperity Inc. to address HIV and health disparities in the African-American LGBTQ community. He was discovered unresponsive Tuesday morning at the organization’s headquarters, reports Dallas News. The cause of death is under investigation. He is survived by his husband, Ricky Sutan Myers-Hill.

In addition to being CEO of Abounding Prosperity, Myers-Hill was president of Dallas Southern Pride, which spearheads annual Black LGBTQ celebrations, including Juneteeth Weekend (held this year June 15 to 19).

On social media, friends and fellow advocates honored Myers-Hill and his influence.

“Kirk was a faithful advocate for the health and wellness of the Black LGBTQ+ community,” wrote his friend Steven Kemble in a Facebook post. “His life’s mission was to create a just equitable society. Friendships transcends death. Memories made by everyone Kirk touched will never be forgotten. Everyone became a better person for having known Kirk.”

A community vigil and balloon release to honor his life is slated for Saturday, April 8, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Irene Trigg-Myers Prosperity Park (2215 Warren Avenue), which just last month was renamed after Myers-Hill’s mother, who died in 2018 and cofounded Abounding Prosperity with him.

In 2005, Myers-Hill founded Abounding Prosperity, now located at 2311 Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, with the mission “to provide services that address health, social and economic disparities among Black Americans with a particular emphasis on gay and bisexual men, cisgender women, transgender women and their families.” The group’s vision, according to its website, is “to empower our clients to achieve self-sufficiency through skills development, increased knowledge and access to community services.”

Abounding Prosperity offered numerous health services ranging from testing for HIV, sexually transmitted infections and hepatitis C, youth programs, support groups, education about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV, services to help transgender people acquire IDs and much more.