Disability advocates around the country are mourning the loss and remembering the leadership of Paul Spooner who died unexpectedly Saturday. In Not Dead Yet’s early years in the late 1990s, Paul was President of the National Council on Independent Living and helped ensure that our message against the “better dead than disabled” mindset was heard by disability advocates at hundreds of CILs. This led to the NCIL membership’s adoption of a formal Resolution Opposing the Legalization of Assisted Suicide in 1997. Under Paul’s leadership, the MetroWest CIL hosted the early NDY website for several years. More recently, his Center has been hosting Second Thoughts Massachusetts’ website.
Paul’s decades of dedication to disability rights will not be forgotten. Below is a brief description of some of his many contributions to the disability rights movement that appeared October 11 in the Framingham Source:
FRAMINGHAM – The Boston Center for Independent Living announced the sudden death of Paul Spooner.
“We are most saddened to share the news that Paul Spooner, a disability rights leader for four decades, passed unexpectedly over the weekend,” wrote the organization in an email. “Paul was Executive Director of the Metrowest Center for Independent Living in Framingham since the early 1990s, a past president of the National Council of Independent Living, and always a fierce advocate for independent living, equal access, and the dignity of people with disabilities.”
Spooner spoke out for “affordable and accessible housing, and accessible transportation, and demanded compliance with the ADA and the state’s Architectural Access Board rules,” said the Boston organization.
Spooner “courted legislators and worked closely with the Metrowest delegation in the state legislature, able to consider Senate President Karen Spilka both a friend and ally. Photos in his office from an earlier time showed Paul with Senator Ted Kennedy, among others,” wrote the Boston organization. “Just last week Paul reveled in the expansion of the CommonHealth program he’d championed with MassHealth that was approved by federal officials. His fingerprints were on too many bills, programs, civil rights complaints, and other advances for people with disabilities to count.”
“Paul Spooner passionately lived disability rights. It defined him and he helped define the cause. He’s totally irreplaceable,” wrote the organization.
