April 1970

So you are doing everything you can with what you have to work with... You don't need an association of employees... You can make it on your own without a crutch... What's the matter now... What do you mean I could do more if I didn't have a handicap?

The last thing I need is a sermon to tell me a League of Federal Recreation Associations is important. After all, I have worked with and for the League and I believe. Perhaps we are too self centered and interested only in our own corner.

Maybe we don't possess the time, interest and stamina needed to do the extra of being involved in another association. I can just be a member and drift along. Let the suckers and those who can't do the other things plod along with organizations that do for others: I've got enough just to keep me snowed under!

Yes, I did hear the great Helen Hayes say it. "We are all handicapped: some physically, some mentally, some emotionally, some financially, and some spiritually." This can explain away the struggle of the League to be a forceful, dynamic and vital representative of 140,000 individual members.

All of us are handicapped when it comes to putting something of ourselves into something of a general nature. We didn't sit unmoved in the Commerce Auditorium on 144th Street as representatives of the Civil Service Commission presented the Second Annual Award Ceremony and the Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee of the Year.

If you are wondering what you can do with what you have to do with, there are some folks close by who can tell you. Let's meet a few together...

The Marine Corps Band played "This is My Country," and we were all invited to join in singing the Star Spangled Banner as the Color Guard of the combined services advanced the Colors. So that sounds routine...

Then look on the stage... In the spotlight were braces, artificial limbs, a crutch, wheelchairs and personalities. Their owners were the 10 Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employees of the Year.

Many like you were nominated and from the search came those who were deemed to have done the most with what they had. Let's call the roll...

The Department of the Air Force sent Jimmy Adams (polio-meningitis), a research chemist with a Master's degree and an Outstanding Performance Rating; Dr. Thomas Austin (polio quadriplegic), Director of the National Oceanographic Data Center of the U.S. Navy and "Honorary Citizen" of Dade County by the Mayors Council for service as Chairman of the Greater Miami Area Equal Employment Opportunity Committee; USDA nominee Dr. Jay Basch (born deaf), an outstanding chemist and author; and Mrs. Francis Garcia (polio) deaf, mute, total blindness in one eye, and a presser with the Sandia Base Laundry in New Mexico who represented the Defense Atomic Support Agency.

Also in the footlights, Ralph Harwood (spinal meningitis) drew the nod from the Defense Supply Agency where he is a public representative and chemist although completely deaf; Mrs. Dorothy Hickey (polio) confined to a wheelchair for the past 24 years, refused to dwell on her infirmities, became an effective counselor to others severely handicapped and performs with accuracy, efficiency and cheer for the U.S.I.A.; Earl Miller (cerebral palsy) conquered a wheelchair, crutches, braces and a cane to learn to walk alone and to be named the outstanding representative from the Civil Service Commission itself.

Next, Philip Pepper (polio) who was President of his class at U.C.L.A. with a Master's degree in social welfare and presently the distinguished Chief of the Office of Program Planning and Evaluation, Indian Health Service, for H.E.W.; Miss Magdalene Phillips (blind) a dictating machine transcriber at Letterman Army Hospital takes the dictation of six medical officers and in her spare time counsels newly blinded patients.

As if this were not enough to make you proud and inspired the last of the 10 nominees was called forward for his citation. He walked across the stage. So, what's so great about walking across the stage?

Bob Smith, a combat rifleman in Korea in the winter of 1950 was presented by the Veterans Administration by Administrator Don Johnson. Bob was shot, taken prisoner, and held for ten days without food or medical attention. His wounds, aggravated by frost bite and infection, necessitate a quadruple amputation. Since 1955 he has been with the VA from tabulating machine operator to computer programmer.

Bob refused to be handicapped. With pride and determination he walked across the stage to meet Harold Russell, Chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, himself a double amputee.

Someone in the audience quipped, "The Iron Men are at work," as four artificial arms and functional hooks grasped the plaque. Who could better carry the title Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee of the Year?

Bob Smith opened his own door to opportunity and as the program said, "He's making sure the door stays open for others now traveling that hard road back."

David L. Brigham
Executive Director