Paul K. Longmore, professor, writer and disability advocate

• TODAY - Memorial Service for Professor Paul Longmore At San Francisco State University 2 PM
• Family, Friends, Colleagues, Advocates and Others Will Gather to Remember The Life and Work of Widely Respected and Loved Disability Rights Advocate, Author, Historian and Educator

MARTINEZ, CALIF – ENROUTE TO SAN JOSE (CDCAN) [Updated 10/23/2010  11:55 AM  (Pacific Time)] -  Family, friends, colleagues, co-workers and advocates will gather today (Saturday, October 23rd)  for a public memorial service remembering the life and work of Professor Paul K. Longmore, a widely respected, influential and loved disability rights advocate, historian, educator and author, beginning at 2 PM (doors open at 1 PM) at San Francisco State University, Seven Hills Conference Center in San Francisco. 

As previously reported, Longmore, age 64, died unexpectedly on August 9th of natural causes. His passing stunned friends, co-workers and advocates across the State, and has been followed by an outpouring of sadness and tributes across the state leading up to this memorial service.   [CDCAN Note: for those who cannot make this memorial – please take a moment today to remember his life and what he did – and how his work will always be a constant living reminder to encourage us to continue to never give up on fighting for the rights that he also fought for – to value the work and life of everyone in our community.  Many of us who are attending the annual conference of the California In-Home Supportive Services Consumer Alliance (CICA) in San Jose today and not able to make the memorial, will take pause to reflect on Paul’s life and the profound difference he made in our community, in our state and in our nation and the world.  He is and will always be missed and treasured  – Marty Omoto]

He last appeared and testified at the State Capitol earlier this year before an Assembly informational hearing chaired by Assemblymember Wes Chesbro (Democrat – Eureka) that focused on people with developmental disabilities.

PROFESSOR PAUL LONGMORE PUBLIC MEMORIAL SERVICE

The family, friends and colleagues of San Francisco State Professor Paul K. Longmore invite you to join them in reflecting on and celebrating his life:

DATE AND TIME:

TODAY - October 23, 2010 – Saturday afternoon

• 1:00PM - Doors open
• 2:00PM - Celebration and Reflection
• 3:00PM - Reception

LOCATION OF MEMORIAL

San Francisco State University
Seven Hills Conference Center
Near State Drive and Font Boulevard
San Francisco, CA 94132
Phone: 415-338-3972

Note: The main address to the campus is  1600 Holloway Avenue

FOR DIRECTIONS AND PARKING:

Go to the university’s website at:

http://www.sfsu.edu/~meetings/location.html

ACCESSIBLE ACCOMMODATIONS:

The location of the memorial services is, according to those organizing the memorial, wheelchair accessible and the event will be open captioned. 

To request any additional reasonable accommodations, please contact 415-338-2954 or cwallin@sfsu.edu by Monday, October 11, 2010.

MEMORIAL GIFTS AND DONATIONS:

The Longmore family indicated that instead of flowers, people  donations would be welcomed and appreciated to the Professor Paul K. Longmore Memorial Fund at San Francisco State. 

The fund will be used to honor, preserve and advance Paul's legacy and work in Disability Studies.

Please make your check payable to the San Francisco State University Corporation, with "Dr. Paul Longmore Memorial Fund" written in the memo

Tax deductible contribution can be mailed to:

San Francisco State University
University Development
Attention: Andrea Rouah
1600 Holloway Ave.,  ADM 153
San Francisco, CA 94132

Longmore Taught at San Francisco State

Professor Longmore taught history at San Francisco State University for 18 years until his death.  He was also director of the Institute of Disability on campus.

Longmore, who had polio since age 7,  was an early leader and scholar in promoting disability history and the disability rights movement.  His family, friends and colleagues at San Francisco State plan – as part of his ongoing memorial – to continue his pioneering work in Disability Studies.

Unable to use his hands because of a childhood polio, Longmore wrote his first book by punching a keyboard with a pen he held in his mouth – an effort that took him 10 years to complete. 

Longmore, after that book, “The Invention of George Washington” was published in 1988, burned a copy in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles to protest and bring attention to efforts to reform federal Social Security rules that penalized persons with disabilities who were authors by counting their royalties from their work as earned income.  That policy was subsequently changed and became known as the "Longmore Amendment." 

Longmore spoke in July 2010 just about two weeks before his death, at a San Francisco celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the passage of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, telling the crowd that "…previously, disability was defined as a set of limitations in the abilities of people with disabilities to function in society because of some pathology in us. The disability rights movement redefined disability as a problem mainly out there in society—not just in our bodies and minds but in society.”

His book Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability History [cover of book picture above left]  challenged popular views of physician assisted suicide, uncovered previously not widely known history of an early disability protest movement during the Great Depression and looked at the stereotypes of disability found on television and in movies.   He also recalled in the book the protest of to the US Social Security Administration in his 2003 essay "Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability”

Longmore’s books are available on Amazon.com