We are saddened by the passing of Graham Mulholland, a great leader and dear friend to many in the disability community. Graham served as the executive director of the PADDC from 1997 through his retirement in 2019. He was a brilliant thinker and visionary. Graham believed that people with disabilities do not need to change, rather, it is the broad community and society that needs to change to include all people who are marginalized. Here are his own words from an interview for Visionary Voices in 2011:
It really seems to me from my experience, that we need to start accepting that
some people look different, some people behave different, and our task in the
disability advocacy community is to help all those so—called “normal people”
to come to terms, and so the target of change for me throughout my career
and increasingly recently has been to say, “How do you change the dominant
culture to accept a diversity?” That is, disability diversity, just like it’s finally
become acceptable to accept diversity on racial, ethnic, sexual, or religious
grounds.
Graham had a tremendous impact in Pennsylvania and his influence reached across the country. His legacy lives on through all of us and our work. The family will be holding a visitation from 6 – 8 PM on Monday, October 26 at Hoffman Funeral Home in Carlisle. His obituary will be posted on their website (www.HoffmanFH.com) and in the Patriot News.
With Sorrow,
Lisa
Lisa Tesler
Executive Director
PA Developmental Disabilities Council