Ed Beck Recognized

Ed Beck Recognized

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Ed Beck]

Ed Beck Recognized

From the Editor: Ed Beck is a long-time leader of

the National Federation of the Blind of Rhode Island. The following article first appeared

in the August 6, 1997, edition of the Providence Journal-Bulletin. As usual Ed Beck took

an active part in this year's Washington Seminar. This is what a reporter, Richard Salit,

had to say about Ed Beck and his work last summer:

At Eighty-three Edmund Beck Remains a Vigorous

Advocate for the Blind

One day twenty-seven years ago a stack of wine

cases toppled onto Edmund Beck, throwing him to the floor of his Rolfe Square liquor store

and knocking him unconscious.

After coming to, Beck noticed the vision blurring

in his one good eye. He had lost sight in the other as a teen when a baseball bat hit him

in the head. Doctors couldn't save that eye, and now, at fifty-six and facing total

blindness, he again heard doctors say they could do nothing for him.

"Then the curtains went down completely and

I couldn't see anything," Beck recalls.

The darkness enveloped Beck in a deep depression.

The life he had known was over. It took him a year to accept that there was, literally, no

looking back.

That's when his new life began. Forced to give up

Eddie's Liquors, he turned his energies to lobbying, traveling across the country to fight

for the needs of the handicapped and the elderly.

As the former head of the Rhode Island Liquor

Store Association, Beck was no stranger to state politics. He knew his way around the

State House and rubbed elbows with some of the most powerful leaders in the General

Assembly. He had relished politics, and it was time to return with a new mission: helping

the handicapped and the elderly. "It would kill me if I had to stay home," he

says.

Today Beck is eighty-three and still as

enthusiastic as a political intern. He lobbied for federal legislation that was passed

last fall to speed the reproduction of books and magazines into audio or Braille versions

for the blind.

"He is a delightful fellow and, in his

gentle and soft-spoken fashion, is an able advocate for the blindness community,"

says Senator John Chafee, who worked with Beck on the legislation and who has known him

for years.

"Ed is a wonderful example of an individual

who has done more than overcome a disability," Chafee says. "Through his work he

has helped others to see beyond the disability to the enormous ability we all

possess."

On a scorching summer day Beck sits at a

cafeteria table in the state administration building, a short walk from the State House,

where it's common for the politicians to walk up and shake his hand.

A pair of dark aviator glasses shrouds his eyes,

and a collapsible cane rests on the table in front of him. Next to the cane is a small

metal plate with holes that he uses with a stylus to take notes in Braille.

Sitting across from him is Virgilio Devecchis,

seventy-three, who lobbies with Beck on behalf of the American Association of Retired

Persons. Devecchis is also one of Beck's closest friends. For years he has driven Beck to

the State House and read documents to him.

"We both learn at the same time,"

Devecchis says.

Beck doesn't like to dwell on his blindness. He'd

rather

talk about legislation or reel off names of

people he has met in his years in politics—from the likes of Senators Kennedy,

Chafee, and Reed on down to political aides from Providence to Washington. He seems to

remember them all.

Despite his reluctance to talk about himself, he

is too much of a gentleman not to face a visitor, as if he could see, and answer a few

questions about how he lost his eyesight.

"What I really want to express is it's not

the end of the world," he says.

When he had one good eye, Beck was able to drive

a car, operate a business, and devote time to his family. Suddenly, at fifty-six, he had

to give up much of that life. Beck took to spending a lot of time at his home on Shirley

Boulevard with his wife Mildred, with whom he has one daughter.

"The first year it was terrible," he

says. "I moped and moped and didn't do anything."

But then, mustering what he calls a positive

attitude, he decided to forge a new life. He learned how to read Braille, taking advantage

of home tutoring once a week, and for exercise began walking down his street, lined with

handsome 1920's Colonials he could no longer see.

From those beginnings Beck would go on to serve

on the Governor's Advisory Council for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Governor's

Committee on the Handicapped. He also served as a legislative representative for both the

AARP and the National Federation of the Blind.

He traveled a great deal a few years back but

these days spends most of his time lobbying in Providence, with a trip once a year to

Washington.