[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16941-16942]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING HUGH GALLAGHER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 20, 2004

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise in tribute to Hugh 
Gregory Gallagher, initiator of the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, 
insightful biographer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and my mentor and 
friend. Hugh died on July 13 in Washington.
  Hugh, along with Bill Foster, first introduced me to the ways of 
Capitol Hill in 1963 in the office of Senator E. L. ``Bob'' Bartlett of 
Alaska. I was an eager but less-than-knowledgable divinity student at 
the time, but their lessons took, and I ended up returning to the 
office as a legislative aide every summer through 1967, eventually 
writing a doctoral dissertation in political science based on what I 
observed there. Hugh was my mentor and colleague through this entire 
period, imparting extensive knowledge of the workings and the history 
of the Senate as well as remarkable political savvy and the best 
instruction in writing clear prose that I ever received from anyone 
save my English-teacher mother. My wife and I have maintained our 
friendship with Hugh since those years, and we are greatly saddened by 
his passing.
  Hugh was stricken with polio during his college years and was 
rehabilitated at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, which stimulated 
a lifelong interest in Franklin D. Roosevelt. He received a Marshall 
Scholarship to Oxford University and earned his degree amid 
considerable physical hardship, for Oxford was hardly outfitted for 
students in wheelchairs in those days. After a short stint with Senator 
John Carroll (D-CO), Hugh became Senator Bartlett's chief legislative 
aide. Statehood was less than a decade old, and adjusting national 
policy to Alaska's altered status and many needs was a complicated 
challenge. But Hugh's proudest achievement by far was national 
legislation which he largely conceived, wrote, and steered to passage: 
the Bartlett Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, which required that 
federal facilities and buildings constructed with federal dollars be 
accessible to the disabled. This bill was the first national disability 
rights legislation, precursor to the 1990 Americans with Disabilities 
Act.
  After Senator Bartlett's death, Hugh worked as a consultant to 
British Petroleum and other firms. But he turned increasingly to 
writing, producing an historical account of the Senate's foreign policy 
role (Advise and Obstruct, 1969), an account of Eskimo activism on 
behalf of federal land claims (Etok: A Story of Eskimo Power, 1974), a 
biography of Roosevelt focusing on how he dealt with his disability 
(FDR's Splendid Deception, 1985), an account of Nazi Germany's 
treatment of the disabled (By Trust Betrayed, 1990), and an 
autobiography probing the psychological costs of ``trying to compensate 
[for] or obfuscate your disability'' (Black Bird Fly Away, 1998).
  In his foreword to the latter volume, Geoffrey Ward summed up Hugh's 
contribution: ``It is impossible for anyone not to admire Hugh 
Gallagher's gallantry--a word I'm sure he'll hate having applied to 
him--or his extraordinary achievements in and out of the corridors of 
power in Washington, or his hard-won triumph over the depression that 
threatened to cripple him as polio never could. Disabled people will 
draw sustenance from this book but I also can't imagine a more useful 
volume for any able-bodied person--parent or child, spouse or 
companion, friend or relation--who wants to understand what the 
disabled really feel about the challenges brought by each new day.''
  Hugh maintained an abiding love for Alaska. One of my fondest 
memories is of a trip with him down the Kenai Peninsula, all the way to 
Homer and Kachemak Bay, in the summer of 1966. Hugh kept up with many 
Alaska friends and traveled there often, including a recent trip to 
give the Bartlett Lecture at the University of Alaska.
  Hugh Gallagher lived a rich and inspiring life--a life containing 
adversity beyond what most of us will ever experience and exemplifying 
courage, tenacity, and hard-earned wisdom. Hugh had a great deal to say 
to the world, he said it powerfully and eloquently, and thousands are 
in his debt. Hugh also had a remarkable gift for friendship, and his 
many friends mourn his passing and treasure our memory of him.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that the account of Hugh Gallagher's life from the 
Washington Post of July 16, 2004, be reprinted at this point in Record.

               [From the Washington Post, July 16, 2004]

               Hugh Gallagher Dies; Crusaded for Disabled

                          (By Adam Bernstein)

       Hugh G. Gallagher, 71, who died of cancer July 13 at Sibley 
     Memorial Hospital, wrote an early civil rights law affecting 
     the disabled and a praised biography of former president 
     Franklin D. Roosevelt's struggle with polio.
       Mr. Gallagher, stricken with polio at age 19, played a 
     major role in the 2001 decision to add a statue of Roosevelt 
     in a wheelchair to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in 
     Washington. For years he told reporters, ``Don't let them 
     steal our hero!''
       Mr. Gallagher underwent rigorous and at times horrifying 
     treatment for his disease, which he contracted during its 
     last widespread sweep in America before the invention of a 
     vaccine. He was paralyzed below the chest and later suffered 
     from clinical depression.
       He went on to address his concerns for the disabled through 
     a career in politics and prose. Although many worked to 
     change the image of the disabled--from the pitiable, leg-
     braced waif in old March of Dimes promotions--Mr. Gallagher 
     was far more concerned about practical questions, the 
     personal and financial costs of living with a disability.
       While working as an aide on Capitol Hill, he developed and 
     drafted the language of what became the Architectural 
     Barriers Act of 1968, a lauded precursor to the sweeping 
     Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. His legislation 
     mandated that buildings funded with federal dollars had to be 
     accessible to the disabled, which many opposed because of 
     expense and aesthetic appeal.
       ``Hugh's most outstanding contribution to the quality of 
     life of people with disabilities was to successfully place 
     disability rights on Congress' agenda for the first time,'' 
     former Senate majority leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) wrote 
     for an event honoring Mr. Gallagher in 1995.
       Mr. Gallagher was never a one-issue man, and his social 
     concerns ranged from gay rights to dignified end-of-life 
     care. He also was a prolific writer of newspaper opinion 
     pieces.
       His earliest nonfiction books concerned a range of 
     subjects, from congressional logjams (``Advise and Obstruct: 
     The Role of the United States Senate in Foreign Policy 
     Decisions,'' 1969) to the efforts of the indigenous people of 
     Alaska to win large land claims from the U.S. government in 
     1971 (``Etok: A Story of Eskimo Power,'' 1974).
       By far his best-known book was `` FDR's Splendid 
     Deception'' (1985), about the president's ability to radiate 
     hope and confidence while living in great physical stress. 
     Many critics hailed the book's unsentimental approach to a 
     long-overlooked aspect of Roosevelt's life.
       In her review for The Washington Post, Marina Newmyer wrote 
     that Mr. Gallagher ``has put together a solid, suspenseful 
     and fast-paced account of the medical tragedy suffered by 
     Roosevelt.''
       Mr. Gallagher found that among the 35,000 photographs of 
     Roosevelt at his presidential library, only two featured him 
     in his wheelchair. Media of the day all but ignored the 
     polio, an omission that served the president's political 
     purposes and showed his threshold for withstanding pain, he 
     wrote.
       He said he understood Roosevelt's stoicism, which Mr. 
     Gallagher took to indicate a near-disavowal of the 
     disability. ``For years, I tried to work harder than any 
     able-bodied person would,'' he told an interviewer. ``My 
     drive to become a superhero exacted a terrible price. I paid 
     no attention to my emotions. I became an automaton.''
       Hugh Gregory Gallagher was born in Palo Alto, Calif, where 
     his father taught political science at Stanford University. 
     He grew up in Chicago, New York and Washington.
       He was at Haverford College in spring 1952 when he suddenly 
     developed polio during parents' weekend. He left school, 
     spent three months in an iron lung and was operated on 
     several times. ``I never realized such pain existed,'' he 
     told a reporter at the time.
       Once, his iron lung stopped, and Mr. Gallagher had to 
     instruct the unnerved nurses how to pump the device by hand.

[[Page 16942]]

       Much of his rehabilitation took place in Warm Springs, Ga., 
     where Roosevelt also had recuperated. That triggered his 
     fascination with the president.
       In 1956, he graduated from what is now Claremont McKenna 
     College in California and then went on a Marshall scholarship 
     to Oxford University, where he received the equivalent of a 
     master's degree in political science, philosophy and 
     economics.
       At Oxford, he had difficulty maneuvering a wheelchair on 
     the cobblestone streets. The only bathroom he could use was a 
     block and a half from his room.
       Such indignities led to his legislative work on Capitol 
     Hill. He spent most of the 1960s as an administrative 
     assistant to Sen. E.L. ``Bob'' Bartlett (D-Alaska). He also 
     worked for President Lyndon B. Johnson as his legislative 
     signing and veto message writer in 1967 and 1968.
       He then was the Washington representative for British 
     Petroleum and spent about 25 years as a policy and politics 
     consultant for large oil concerns in Europe. His work took 
     him to Alaska and other oil-drilling areas, where he was 
     often hoisted onto oil rigs in his wheelchair.
       Over the years, he lobbied to make airports, performance 
     halls and libraries accessible to those in wheelchairs.
       He wrote from his home in Cabin John, including the books 
     ``By Trust Betrayed'' (1990), about Nazi Germany's treatment 
     of the disabled, and ``Black Bird Fly Away'' (1998), which 
     looked at his own depression about his disability.
       In 1995, Mr. Gallagher received the $50,000 Henry B. Betts 
     Award for his lifetime work for the disabled.
       At the time, he reflected on the ``revolution'' in 
     attitudes toward the disabled but added that there were some 
     limits in what was doable or even desirable.
       ``Making the New York City subway system accessible to 
     wheelchairs is not the best way to spend public money,'' he 
     said. ``Besides, I'm not going down there to get mugged.''
       Survivors include his father, Hubert R. Gallagher of 
     Bethesda; and a sister.

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