Alan A Reich

Abstract

Leading advocate for the disabled, founding president of the National Organization on Disability. Born on Jan 1, 1930, in Pearl River, NY, USA, he died of complications of heart failure in McLean, VA, USA, on Nov 8, 2005, aged 75 years. Alan Reich was 32 years old in 1962 when a diving accident left him a quadriplegic. He spent 9 months in hospital, and would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. After returning to his job at the Polaroid Corporation for 7 years, he joined the US State Department. He also began working as a volunteer serving the disability movement in the USA, as founder of the Paralysis Cure Research Foundation, president of the National Paraplegia Foundation (now the National Spinal Cord Injury Association), and founder of the National Task Force on Disability. “At the State Department, I became exposed to the disability problem in the world—millions of people who were neglected, discriminated against, and poverty stricken”, he said in a 2004 interview. “I felt that I had a responsibility [to other people with disabilities] and had always had an interest in international affairs, so I went to the United Nations”, he added. “You must go straight to the top.” Reich and his colleagues would convince the UN to declare 1981 the International Year of Disabled Persons, and Reich would become president of the US council that coordinated US efforts for the year. In that capacity, he was the first wheelchair user to address the UN General Assembly. The council eventually became the National Organization on Disability (NOD), of which Reich would serve as founding president. Reich shaped the NOD into an organisation that raised public awareness about the needs and potential of people with disabilities and lobbied national and international leaders to act in support of these needs. This organisation now supports the participation and contribution of America's 54 million men, women, and children with disabilities in all aspects of their lives. Michael R Deland, the NOD's current president said of Reich that “Through his leadership, he changed the way our nation and nations of the world view disability.” “He was very upbeat all the time, and an absolute workhorse”, said Nancy Starnes, vice president and chief of staff at the NOD. Reich would work weekends, dictating cassette tapes that reviewed how programmes were faring and making suggestions for improvements. “You could hear birds singing and children in the background. He never stopped working. It was amazing that he found time to still have a very loving relationship with his wife and his family and quite an energetic social life.” Reich was particularly proud of his successful effort to get a privately funded statue of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a wheelchair installed at the FDR Memorial. When Reich wanted to accomplish something, there was nothing that could stand in his way, Starnes said. He developed the concept for the World Committee on Disability. “He said, ‘let's provide a $50 000 prize and ask heads of state to come and accept it’,” Starnes recalled. “People said ‘oh, Alan, you're thinking too large again.’ But heads of state came.” Reich felt strongly that mayors had the ability to change the outcomes for people with disabilities, so he worked to create the Community Partnership and then a group for national partners, Starnes said, that has now worked with more than 4000 cities, towns, and counties in the USA since 1982. In 1984, Reich created the Bimillenium Foundation to set goals for people with disabilities for the year 2000. More recently, he brought together a task force after 9/11 that eventually led to the NOD's Emergency Preparedness Initiative to ensure that people with disabilities are included in emergency planning. Despite his impressive record of achievement Reich “was a very modest man”, said Starnes. “I think some of the honours, including the Bush Medal that he received from President George H W Bush, were the kind of honours that were long overdue because Alan tended to work behind the scenes to make sure that people realised how important a resource people with disabilities could be, given the opportunity”, she told The Lancet. Reich retired from the NOD in April, 2005. He is survived by his wife, Gay Forsythe Reich, two sons, James and Jeffrey, a daughter, Elizabeth Keane, and a brother, Peter Reich.