[Nfbv-announce] Retirement of Dr. Maurer

[Fredric Schroeder]

Friends:

 

Over the weekend, I participated in a meeting of the board of directors of
the National Federation of the Blind. The meeting was held at our national
headquarters in Baltimore.

 

As you know, Dr. Marc Maurer has been our national president since 1986. He
has served as president longer than any of our previous presidents and has
guided us through a period of unprecedented growth and change. It was under
Dr. Maurer's leadership that we established the Jernigan Institute and all
of the programs that have been so successful in demonstrating the truth of
our assertion that given proper opportunity and training, blind people can
live and work as others.

 

In particular we have developed many programs designed to provide blind
children and youth with the skills and confidence they need to compete fully
in their education and to develop their life ambitions. We have conducted
the Youth Slam, Science Academy, and more recently the BELL programs. 

 

In the area of technology under Dr. Maurer's leadership we developed the
KNFB Reader Mobile allowing blind people to have immediate access to print
with nothing more than a cell phone and special software. And then there was
the Blind Driver Challenge. There is no question that lack of access to
reliable transportation remains a major barrier for blind people. Yet, the
Blind Driver Challenge showed that we could develop the technology to enable
a blind person to drive a car, not simply sit passively in a car that drives
itself.

 

These are the expressions of Dr. Maurer's leadership. Yet at the heart of
his leadership is his spirit and his belief in every blind person. He has
inspired and encouraged us, faced the most difficult challenges with
resolution and strength, and he has kept us together, and never let us
waiver in our belief in our own right to live normal, productive lives.

 

On Saturday afternoon Dr. Maurer told the board that it is his intention to
not seek reelection to the presidency next summer at our national
convention. He feels the time is right to transition to the next president,
the next individual who can lead us for a quarter century or more. Dr.
Maurer is in good health and believes that it is important that he step down
from the presidency while he is able to assist with the transition. Dr.
Maurer told the board that he, Dr. Maurer, plans to support Mr. Mark
Riccobono as the next president of the National Federation of the Blind.

 

Mr. Riccobono presently serves as the Executive Director of the Jernigan
Institute. He is an accomplished individual with the strength and wisdom to
assume the serious responsibility of leading our movement. He has brought to
his work the imagination and competency we demand from our president. 

 

We are truly fortunate that within the Federation we have individuals who
are able and willing to give all they have to furthering our move toward
true equality. The demands of the NFB presidency are unimaginable. We
require our leader to give all of his time, all of his imagination, and all
of his personal reserve of judgment to leading our organization. This is
what Dr. Maurer has done for the past 27 and a half years, and it is what
Mark Riccobono will do for the time of his presidency. 

 

The transition brings to an end one chapter in our history and what a
glorious chapter it has been. We cannot face the loss of Dr. Maurer's
leadership without a sense of sadness; but the transition to a new president
is not just the absence of what we had before. The transition heralds a new
chapter in our history and with it, new opportunities-the chance to take all
that has come before and build something bigger and more powerful than we
have ever known. 

 

Please join me in thanking Dr. Maurer for his leadership, his friendship and
his faithful devotion to our cause; and please join me in wishing Mark
Riccobono the very best as he seeks to take the foundation that is all that
has come before and build upon it the next great chapter in our history.