[nagdu] Matthew P. Sapolin, Who Led Bloomberg's Office for Disabled, Dies at 41

[Ginger Kutsch]

Matthew P. Sapolin, Who Led Bloomberg’s Office for Disabled, Dies at 41

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

Published: November 29, 2011 

URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/nyregion/matthew-p-sapolin-who-led-bloombe
rgs-office-for-disabled-dies-at-41.html?_r=1

Matthew P. Sapolin, the Bloomberg administration’s disabilities
commissioner, died of cancer on Tuesday. He was 41. 

 

Mayor’s Office, via Associated Press

Matthew Sapolin in 2007 with his guide dog at the time, Compass. 

 

Mr. Sapolin, whose death was confirmed by the mayor’s office, had served as
commissioner for the Mayor’s Office for People With Disabilities since the
post was created in 2006. In that role, he pushed to make New York City’s
building code more accommodating to people with disabilities, created a
mentoring program and led an effort to freeze rents for some disabled New
Yorkers. 

 

Mr. Sapolin was also blind. Friends and colleagues said that while Mr.
Sapolin’s blindness informed his life, it did not narrow it. He was an
accomplished wrestler, a versatile musician, a formidable chess player and
an occasional skier. 

 

“His mother told him, you go to school and you’ll learn, and that’s it,”
said Carol Robles-Román, deputy mayor for legal affairs. “You’re going to
school with everybody else, and they’re going to treat you like everybody
else.” 

 

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Mr. Sapolin executive director of the
Office for People With Disabilities in 2002. Four years later, Mr. Bloomberg
decided to elevate the job to the level of commissioner, and Mr. Sapolin
rose with it. 

 

At age 5, Mr. Sapolin lost his sight to bilateral retinoblastoma, a cancer
that affects the optic nerve. Mr. Bloomberg’s office said he had battled
cancer ever since, and it was that disease that killed him, a rare form
called leiomyosarcoma. 

 

Mr. Sapolin was the captain of his high school wrestling team in Islip,
N.Y., the town where he was born. He went on to be co-captain of the
wrestling team at New York University. In 1992, he was profiled in Sports
Illustrated when he had the Division III nationals within reach, competing
against sighted wrestlers. 

 

“I think what strikes me is what a fighter he was,” Ms. Robles-Román said.
“He was tenacious and he was an advocate to the nth degree, but he was
always professional, collaborative and collegial. Those words don’t
necessarily go together, but in Matt’s case, they really did.” 

 

Mr. Sapolin continued to go to work for Mr. Bloomberg — who would sometimes
joke that Mr. Sapolin’s golden retriever guide dog had a habit of shedding
on his suits — as recently as last week, said Jason Mischel, his deputy and
general counsel. 

 

“Between the office and his apartment on the Upper West Side,” Mr. Mischel
said, “he would run into three or four people who would come up to him and
say ‘Hey, commissioner, do you remember me?’ And he would know them by the
sound of their voice.” 

 

Mr. Sapolin is survived by his wife, Candra, and their two children, Trevor
and Toscany.