Oakland Mayor Proclaims August 15 as Larry Paradis Day

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf proclaimed August 15 as Larry Paradis Day, in honor of DRA’s Cofounder and Executive Director who passed away on July 28, 2016. This proclamation is reproduced below:

Office of the Mayor
Proclamation
Oakland, California

In Recognition and Celebration of
Disability Civil Rights Leader Larry Paradis

Whereas, Larry Paradis spent his life working tirelessly so that people with disabilities would be fully included in all aspects of American life and he will be loved and admired forever for it; and

Whereas, Mr. Paradis was Cofounder and Executive Director of Disability Rights Advocates, established in 1993 to advance equal rights and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities nationwide; and

Whereas, Oakland was home base for Disability Rights Advocates during the early years and all Oaklanders have benefitted greatly from their extraordinary efforts to make real the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; and

Whereas, Mr. Paradis took on and won hundreds of high impact, precedent-setting cases, achieving dramatic improvements for people with disabilities seekking access to health care, employment, transportation, education, disaster preparedness planning, voting and housing; and

Whereas, Mr. Paradis’ legal work was of the highest order and, through three decades of work, he almost never lost a case; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Paradis will be remembered as a hero for the disability community, a skilled and dedicated lawyer, and a devoted father and husband;

Now, therefore, I, Mayor Libby Schaaf, do hereby proclaim Tuesday, August 15, 2016 as

“Larry Paradis Day”

IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the City of Oakland to be affixed.

Libby Schaaf, Mayor, City of Oakland