Alan A. Reich, 75, a Leader In Fighting for the Disabled
Hyfler/Rosner
BYLINE: By WOLFGANG SAXON
Alan A. Reich, the founder and president emeritus of the
National Organization on Disability, a voice in public
forums for those disabled in any way, died on Tuesday at his
home in McLean, Va. He was 75.
His death was announced on the Web site of the organization,
which he ran until last April. The cause was heart failure
resulting from longstanding respiratory problems, said
Michael R. Deland, his successor as president.
The 23-year-old group is an umbrella organization that is
active on a local, state and national level. It seeks full
and equal participation for disabled people in all aspects
of life, and each year it gives its Accessible America Award
to communities showing the most progress in that area, most
recently citing Pasadena, Calif., and Phoenix.
Mr. Reich, who used a wheelchair after suffering severe
spinal injuries in a diving accident in 1962, was a
recipient this year of a George H. W. Bush Award,
established to honor outstanding service under the Americans
With Disabilities Act of 1992.
Alan Anderson Reich was born in Pearl River, N. Y., and
graduated from Dartmouth in 1952. He received a diploma in
Slavic studies from Oxford University in 1953, along with a
master's from the Russian Institute of Middlebury College,
and an M.B.A. at Harvard in 1959.
From 1953 to 1957 he served as an officer and
Russian-language interrogator with the Army in Germany. He
started a business career with the Polaroid Corporation in
1962. In 1970, he joined the State Department as a deputy
assistant secretary for educational and cultural affairs.
He worked in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare
and directed the Bureau of East-West Trade for the
Department of Commerce before he was named president of the
United States Council for the International Year of Disabled
Persons in 1978. As council president, he was the first
wheelchair user to address the United Nations General
Assembly when it opened the International Year of Disabled
Persons in 1981.
Resigning from the government, Mr. Reich transformed the
council into the National Organization on Disability in
1982. Using his connections from private business and public
service, he built the organization into a platform to alert
the public to the needs and potentials of people with
disabilities and to prod policy makers into action.
Mr. Reich also helped build a coalition of disability groups
that was instrumental in the placing of a statue of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a wheelchair in the F. D.
R. Memorial in Washington.
In addition to his wife of 50 years, Gay Forsythe Reich, Mr.
Reich is survived by two sons, James F., of Marshfield
Hills, Mass., and Jeffrey P., of Dobbs Ferry, N. Y.; a
daughter, Elizabeth R. Keane of Arlington, Va.; a brother,
Peter B., of Pasadena; and 11 grandchildren.
SPX
By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 11, 2005; B07
Alan A. Reich, 75, founder of the National Organization on Disability,
the largest umbrella group for disability activists, died of congestive
heart failure Nov. 8 at his home in McLean.
Mr. Reich, a quadriplegic since a 1962 swimming accident, founded the
U.S. Council for the International Year of the Disabled in 1981 and was
the first wheelchair user to address the U.N. General Assembly. A key
advocate for the Americans With Disabilities Act, he also created the
Franklin D. Roosevelt International Disability Award to recognize other
nations' progress on disability goals.
He received the George Bush Medal in July for his work on behalf of
people with disabilities.
Mr. Reich was "a mobilizer of the world's conscience," said Librarian
of Congress James H. Billington, who attended Oxford University and
served in the Army with him. "He's very possibly the most inspirational
single human being I've ever known."
A star athlete, brilliant linguist and decorated Army officer, Mr.
Reich was working as a Polaroid Corp. executive when, at age 32, he
fell from a rope swing over a pond and broke his neck. Told he would
not drive or write again, he relearned both skills, returned to his
corporate job, served in the federal government and founded a number of
organizations. His name was not often in the public view, but his
influence behind the scenes was significant.
"Alan was the leading visionary who had the overarching view of the
disability movement writ large," said Michael R. Deland, chairman and
president of the National Organization on Disability. "He was at the
cutting edge."
One of the few times that Mr. Reich garnered public attention was while
he led the fight that raised $1.65 million to add the statue of FDR in
a wheelchair to the front of the former president's memorial in
Washington.
"The unveiling is a major national moment, the removal of the shroud of
shame that cloaks disability," he said in 2001. "The statue will become
a shrine to people with disabilities, but it will also inspire everyone
to overcome obstacles. When you see the memorial that follows the
statue, what will be in your mind is that he did all this from a
wheelchair."
Mr. Reich, who used a wheelchair for 43 years, organized the leaders of
disability groups immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks to make sure that emergency planning included people with
disabilities. He, with Richard and Ginny Thornburgh, board members for
the National Organization on Disability, persuaded Pope John Paul II to
sponsor a 1990 world symposium on disabilities at the Vatican. Mr.
Reich also worked for 30 years with the Harris Poll to track the
progress of Americans with disabilities.
He was born in Pearl River, N.Y., and graduated from Dartmouth College
in New Hampshire, where he was an all-American track and field athlete.
He received a master's degree in Russian literature from Middlebury
College in 1953, a diploma in Slavic languages and Eastern European
studies from the University of Oxford the same year and a master's in
business administration from Harvard University in 1959. He spoke five
languages.
Mr. Reich served in the Army as an infantry officer and Russian
language interrogation officer in Germany and was named a member of the
U.S. Army Infantry Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame.
He worked for Polaroid in manufacturing management and long-range
planning from 1960 to 1970, when he was named deputy assistant
secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs. He
subsequently served as deputy assistant secretary of commerce for
East-West trade and as director of the bureau of East-West trade.
At the same time, he volunteered, working to improve research in
regeneration of the human central nervous system. He founded and
chaired the Paralysis Cure Research Foundation, was president of what
became the National Spinal Cord Injury Association and founded the
National Task Force on Disability. He also served as chairman of the
People-to-People Committee on Disability.
He persuaded the United Nations to declare 1981 the International Year
of the Disabled, led the council that directed the year, then
transformed it into the National Organization on Disability. The small,
15-staff organization was the first group concerned with all
disabilities and age groups. Its CEO Council attracts 100 corporate
executives committed to increasing employment for the 54 million
Americans with disabilities and for the half-billion disabled people
around the world.
The AARP magazine plans to give him one of its 2006 Impact Awards next
month.
He was a member of the Achilles Club of London and the Cosmos Club of
Washington.
Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Gay Forsythe Reich of McLean;
three children, James Reich of Marshfield Hills, Mass., Jeffrey Reich
of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and Elizabeth Keane of Arlington; a brother; and
11 grandchildren.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company