American philanthropist and activist Reed Erickson was BOTD in 1917. Born in El Paso, Texas to a wealthy manufacturing family, he was assigned female at birth, and was raised in Philadelphia. He studied briefly at Temple University, before moving with his family to Louisiana, where he attended Louisiana State University, becoming the college’s first female engineering graduate. In 1962, he took over his father’s lead-smelting business, and began his gender transition under the supervision of sexologist Harry Benjamin. In 1964, he established the Erickson Educational Foundation, which provided funding for university research into gender transition, advancing medical care for trans patients and supporting public education campaigns about trans identity. Erickson was also a prominent donor to LGBTQ organisations throughout the United States, and supported New Age-inspired exploratory research into dolphin communication, acupuncture and dreams. After his gender transition, he married three times and fathered two children. In later life, he struggled with drug addiction, eventually fleeing arrest in the mid-1980s and moving to Mexico, where he remained a fugitive until his death. He died in 1992 aged 74.