My nomination is based on two factors, two discounts. First I discount great men or leaders whose movement would have arisen or succeeded without them: Gandhi and ML King Jr. Then there are men who were in the right place at the right time: Churchill and Ronald Reagan.
My nomination is Ed Roberts. Ed Roberts was stricken with polio at age 14. He went on found the world disability movement. He matriculated at Berkeley and became the Director of the California Department of Vocational Rehab. Everything Ed did was a first.
Ed was a driving bull. What he did, he could have done anywhere in almost any time. Ed succeeded for two reasons: he was a man of such depth and integrity that everyone responded to him with love and hope.... He asked that the appreciation for him be bestowed on everyone else with disabilities. ( I wrote an obit on this subject.)
The disability movement has changed the way we all live from curb cuts, to accessibility in public facilities, to the perceptions we have about disability and birth defects. We were all made more human by Ed.
I do not mean to diminish the contributions of Judy Heuman and Joan Leon. They know that I appreciate them and they know the role that Ed played.
I nominate Ed Roberts as the most important man of the 20th century.