Gay Scooter Rider Killed in Hit-and-Run Collision

A gay man riding his scooter early Sunday morning near his home in San Francisco's Sunnyside neighborhood was killed in a suspected hit-and-run incident.

As police search for the person responsible, friends of Dennis Nix, 60, are describing the longtime certified financial planner as "curmudgeonly" and gregarious, and a well-traveled sportsman and community fundraiser.

At 2:32 a.m. Sunday, November 22, a man the medical examiner's office has identified as Nix was riding his scooter south on San Jose Avenue approaching the Monterey Boulevard exit when a light-colored sedan struck him, according to Officer Grace Gatpandan, a police spokeswoman, who said in her summary that Nix was "pronounced dead at the scene."

In an interview Monday, Gatpandan said police didn't have more information about the vehicle that hit Nix or the driver.

Nix was a member of various LGBT sports clubs, including FrontRunners, the SAGA North Ski and Snowboard Club, and Northern California Rainbow Divers. He had just attended the FrontRunners annual holiday dinner before he was struck.

Michael D'Arata, 62, Nix's best friend and power of attorney, suspects a drunk driver hit him.

"I'm pretty enraged by it, and even if the driver wasn't drunk, I'm still enraged," D'Arata, of San Francisco, said. "It was a hit-and-run. I just don't know what kind of person would do that."

'A Huge Presence'

Like many others, D'Arata remembered his friend, who was originally from New York and moved to San Francisco in the early 1980s, for his big personality and his New York accent.

"He was a huge presence," D'Arata said. "It was like having New York City in your living room." He said Nix was "loud" and "not the most diplomatic" but his heart was "as big as could be."

Explaining how his friend was community-oriented, D'Arata said, "Those were the values that were instilled in him, to be involved in the community, to participate, to contribute, to not take, but to give as much as you can."

D'Arata said one example of Nix's generosity was his fundraising efforts for the East Bay AIDS Center, where D'Arata works, especially his support of the center's Connecting Resources for Urban Sexual Health project, which works "to help provide PrEP to young gay men of color," among other things.

For many years, D'Arata said, Nix was a senior manager for the former MCI Communications Corporation before deciding "he wanted to interact more with people." In 2002, he left MCI and started working to become a financial planner, eventually earning his certification.

"He went into financial planning because he wanted to deal with people one to one and help them make good decisions around their retirements and make good financial plans," D'Arata said.

Despite his achievements, Nix hadn't gone to college.

"That was always something that really bothered him," D'Arata said, so for more than 10 years, beginning in 1983, he went to night school at San Francisco State and eventually got a bachelor's in social sciences after taking "one class at a time."

The last time D'Arata saw Nix was Friday night.

"I'm recuperating from a knee replacement," D'Arata said, and Nix "insisted he was going to bring me dinner. ... He brought me my favorite pizza," and they "bullshitted" the rest of the night, he said.

Other Memories

D'Arata said Nix had been thinking about getting a car. With all the things he was involved in, "it was too hard for him not to have a car," he said. He said Nix drove a moped but he didn't know what kind it was.

"It looked like a piece of shit to me, a little white thing," he said. "It used to concern me," D'Arata said, but Nix "was always super cautious," and he wore a helmet.

Katharine Holland, 52, of Mill Valley, said she'd cried herself to sleep Sunday night, but what she recalled first about Nix was his humor.

"He just had this sense of humor that was always turned on," Holland, who knew Nix mainly from FrontRunners, said. Despite all his achievements and the fundraising he did, he was "very modest."

But he was also "curmudgeonly," she said. Holland recalled one fundraiser where Nix was one of the night's biggest donors. She asked him to say something, and "in that New York accent," he yelled out, "I don't wanna say a goddamn word."

"He was his own little party going on," she said. "He didn't need to drink. He just had that fun attitude already."

Milo Hanke, 60, of San Francisco, also recalled Nix's mixed characteristics. He said he was "generous" but he also had a "delightful manner of complaining about things."

Hanke last saw Nix Saturday night at the FrontRunners dinner. They did a little "role reversal," he said.

"He was the one who was all sweetness and light trying to get me to stop complaining about something."

Steve Marshall, of San Francisco, who's in his late 50s, called Nix, "funny," "smart," and "a loyal friend."

Marshall said Nix had been "with a partner for about five or six years, and let's just say that since then, he had many devoted friends, some friends with benefits, and many admirers."

"We should all have those," he said, laughing, and added, "he was beloved by more people than you can count. ... The world is a lesser place without him."

Nix had been planning to visit his family this week in New York, including his 96-year-old mother, for Thanksgiving, D'Arata said.

Plans now are for his body to be brought back for "a traditional Italian wake," then cremate him and scatter his ashes in New York, San Francisco, and Cozumel, Mexico, where he liked to go diving, D'Arata said. A San Francisco memorial will probably be held in mid-December.

A statement from the Golden Gate Business Association said that Nix had enjoyed helping LGBT small business owners, and had volunteered as a benefits counselor at Positive Resource Center, which works with people who are living with HIV/AIDS.

The gay business group said it would "take a few minutes to remember Dennis" at its next Make Contact event Tuesday, December 8. For more information, visit http://www.ggba.com.