Dr. Joseph A. Abbott, 1933-2007
It is with great sadness that we report that Board Member, Dr. Joseph A. Abbott, a cardiologist who performed some of the earliest research in non-invasive cardiac imaging, and a forceful advocate for disability rights and environmental causes, died in San Francisco, on November 25, 2007.
Designing Accessible Communities has lost a very caring and active Board member. We will miss Joe and his commitment to the rights of persons with disabilities. He was a real activist who spoke out eloquently about what he believed was right.
Joe spent most of his career as Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In his retirement, he became an effective activist in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains, where he and his wife, Alice have a second residence. Most recently, he introduced and implemented access for people with disabilities to public and other buildings in Plumas County. He will be remembered in that county as the man who lead the charge for accessibility.
Dr. Abbott formally served on the California Secretary of State’s Disability Voting Advisory Committee. He was Coordinator of the Plumas County Advocates for Access Coalition. Joe was specifically interested in improving awareness and compliance with disability access codes and regulations in rural counties throughout California, especially those in the Northeastern section of the State.
Born in Paterson, New Jersey his medical training took him to Boston City Hospital in 1959, where he met his wife, Alice Ryan, to whom he was married for 47 years. His other medical residencies were in Philadelphia, Jersey City, New York City, and Washington, D.C., where he served as Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He enjoyed a fellowship at the Hammersmith Hospital in London and a sabbatical at Oxford University's, Magdalene College.
Joe was a man of many interests. He was a 40-year member of San Francisco's Dolphin Swimming and Rowing Club, and swam regularly in the Bay. He participated in swims across San Francisco's Golden Gate and from Alcatraz to San Francisco, as well as "polar bear" and "over-60" swims. In Bishop, he relished the challenge of navigating the Eastern Sierra winds as a recreational pilot. Later, he achieved an airplane instrument rating and joined the University of California flying club. He traveled widely and was an avid genealogist and historian as well as a keen gardener.
He will be remembered for his humor and common touch, as well as his integrity and tenacity under pressure, both in his profession and with his activism.
In addition to his wife, Alice Abbott, Joe is survived by his son, Michael and daughter Charlotte. We offer our condolences to his family.
