founded the Boston Demophile Society. In talks in Boston and Provincetown he promoted his "Snowflake Theory" of human personality and sexuality, stating that the human mind is like a snowflake in that no two are alike, and each has six opposing sides: I/You, He/She, Hit/Submit. Death Toward the end of his life, his two remaining properties on the Hill were on its North Slope, traditionally the side where servants of patrician South Slope residents lived. He accommodated a motley collection of tenants, mostly young gay men, in an eight-unit building at 75 Phillips St; Prescott himself inhabited an old brick townhouse at the end of Lindall Pl, a cul-de-sac that terminated just behind the Philips Street apartments. A subterranean corridor lined with cubicles connected the basements of the two buildings. The tunnel was said to have housed runaway slaves in transit on the Underground Railway prior to the Civil War. Townsend had, for years, been suffering from failing health brought on by Parkinson's disease, and on May 23, 1973, his body was found in the Beacon Hill apartment of John Murray, who had been caring for him during the final years of his life. The police reported that "when we came in to take charge of the body, Mr. Townsend was found in a kneeling prayer position at his bedside." Of his entire family, only one sister, a nephew and a great-nephew attended his memorial service at the Arlington Street Church. References Additional sources Wicker, Randy (May 24, 1973) "Early Boston gay advocate Prescott Townsend dies at 78" The Advocate, Issue 114, page 11. External links Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context 1894 births 1973 deaths Harvard University alumni LGBT people from Massachusetts American LGBT rights activists Gay men People prosecuted under anti-homosexuality laws Neurological disease deaths in Massachusetts Deaths from Parkinson's disease People from Beacon Hill, Boston 20th-century LGBT people