Our History
Maitri came into existence in 1987, when the Zen teacher Issan Dorsey of the Hartford Street Zen Center took in a homeless student dying of AIDS. Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro district, Maitri soon grew to become a model eight-bed hospice, a place of solace in a community ravaged by AIDS. As the dynamics of the pandemic changed – new drugs had helped reduce mortality but increased the number of patients living with severe debilitations – Maitri responded flexibly by doubling its capacity and extending care to non-hospice patients. This program expansion coincided with Maitri’s relocation to a state-licensed, custom-designed facility in late 1997. Maitri’s Board of Directors received the Citibank Community Stewardship Award for its vision, foresight and tenacity in seeing this project to completion.
- Chapters 1 & 2: Includes accounts of the author's arrival at the Hartford Zen Center in 1990 and the final four months of the life of Maitri founder, Issan Dorsey.
- Chapters 3 & 4: Includes accounts of Issan's death, funeral, the subsequent grieving that descended on the hospice, and the author's decision to live and work there.
A Brief Note About Maitri’s Founder
“AIDS wakes us up to the fact that life is fatal. It’s not AIDS that’s fatal, if you have AIDS you’re alive.”
- Issan Dorsey
Described as “magnetic, magnanimous and luminous,” Issan (Tommy) Dorsey, the colorful founder of Maitri, created a caring community for hundreds of men and women with AIDS, and left behind a legacy of wisdom and compassion that continues to inspire us today. Issan himself died at Maitri of AIDS-related lymphoma in 1990.
From drug-addled drag queen to Zen master, Issan’s life reflected his innate ability to “charm people senseless.” He left a group of followers devoted to deal with whatever came to the door – “We started the hospice because death came to the door.”
For more details about Issan’s life, see Street Zen by David Schneider, Shambala Publications, 1993.
