[Travelandtourism] My last act as President of the NFB Travel & Tourism is to announce the passing of Maurice Shackelford. I just found this out, but he passed a few months ago

[Cheryl Echevarria]

Good afternoon all:

 

As the last act as President of the NFB Travel & Tourism Division, it brings
me great sadness, that I announce the passing of past Vice President,
Maurice Shackelford of NFB of GA!

 

I did not know he had passed away until Denise Brown of the NFB of PA,
informed me of this.

 

This division did help in bringing job opportunities to the blind. When I
first went into being a travel agent, I went to this talk list and asked if
any blind person was a travel agent. Maurice had been in the hospitality
industry first with Marriott Corporation in GA until that location closed,
he worked in the reservations area. He then went on to be his own boss, he
owned and operated Peach Tree Travel! He was my mentor in being a travel
agent, and I had passed this on to others that now own their own agencies.
We also talked to other travel agents who were not blind about how to have
the discussion with those of us, who are blind, and not to just say, hey you
are blind why do you want to travel you cannot see.

 

We worked together in working with Norwegian Cruise Lines to be as they are
today and listened to the both of us on the issues with accessibility for
the blind, which now includes braille upon request on all of the ships, when
you are planning your cruises over the other cruise lines that don't want to
hear about braille or accessibility.

 

Thank you my good friend and I will miss you a lot.

 

He had been ill for some time, and from what I can figure out he passed away
around January 2, 2016

 

Cheryl Echevarria.