Activist Woody Miller has died, age 66

The public "naked guy" was a visible and revered member of the San Francisco LGBTQ+ and activist communities for decades

Woody Milller, Mar. 10th 2022. Courtesy of Andy Tabbat.

Woody Miller, a prominent nudist and civil rights activist known as one of San Francisco’s “naked guys”, passed away on May 4th, 2023, at the age of 66. Miller was known for his advocacy for body freedom and for being a vocal opponent of legislation aimed at restricting public nudity in San Francisco. He had leukemia.

Woody Miller was born Elwood Miller on May 15th, 1956 in eastern Pennsylvania. He first experienced social nudity as a teenager, skinny dipping with friends in a local creek. "It [was] hot, so we'd all take our clothes off and go swimming, and I liked it and wanted to do more of it."¹

After moving out of his childhood home, he began practicing home nudism. Asked about camping trips with friends in which they would swim naked, Woody told a friend, "I was the one who was not ready to put my clothes back on when it became time to do that."²

Miller moved to San Francisco in 1982 where he pursued a career as an artist, often w…