Remembering Anna Fay: Advocate, Role Model and a Person with Class
By Mel Tanzman, Executive Director
Sometimes I have to write about sad things that I wish I didn’t have to. I’ve met many people whose energy, life force and passion give the impression that they are immortal, even though we realize that everybody’s life is finite. My dear friend, mentor, and colleague Anna Fay was one such person, and it pains me to write about her untimely death on December 15, 2017. Untimely seems to be an unusual descriptor for someone who lived for 78 years, but those who knew Anna saw her as a much younger person. So this blog is to celebrate Anna’s remarkable life and to keep the flame of her spirit alive.
Anna contracted polio in 1944 at the age of six, and became a renowned leader in the New York disability rights movement beginning in the 1970s and up until her death. She was a role model and mentor to four generations of people with disabilities who sought to live independently, outside of institutions. Some highlights of her career include: In 1977 she joined a small group of demonstrators who occupied the New York City office of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) for 48 hours demanding that the Federal government move ahead on Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act, which would provide the legal framework and much of the language for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; In 1978, she helped write the grant that led to the establishment of the Center for the Independence of the Disabled in NY (CID-NY), New York’s first Independent Living Center; In 1983, she became the founding Director of the Yonkers Independent Living Center, which became Westchester Disabled On the Move; 1986-2000 Administrator for the Rehabilitation Department at Mt. Sinai Hospital (yes, people with disabilities do have the skills to work in mainstream settings); 2004-2017 Senior Vice President of Independent Living Services, Independence Care Systems, New York’s first Managed Long Term Care Plan. 2014-2016 Anna rejoins WDOMI as a Board member. 2016 Represented WDOMI in a forum on Assisted suicide ( Check it out on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S65-zZxOECw )
Anna, I love and miss you. You are, forever young, forever passionate and forever inspiring. I can hardly put into words what you meant to me. Listen to and learn from her in the following interview.
https://soundcloud.com/icsny/anna-fay-a-life-of-activism