Michelle
11-02-2006, 06:09 PM
Activist for disabled rights dies at 52 (http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061101/NEWS02/611010333/1018)
By ELIZABETH GANGA
CHAPPAQUA - Some 400 people turned out for a memorial service yesterday for Maureen "Mo" Keating Tsuchiya, a Democratic activist and an advocate for the disabled who impressed friends and acquaintances with her energy and conviction.
Tsuchiya died early Saturday of a pulmonary embolism after knee surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. She would have turned 52 today.
Tsuchiya was born in Atkinson, Neb. She survived polio as a child and suffered lingering effects as she got older. Her difficulty walking inspired perhaps one of her first advocacy campaigns while she lived in Minnesota, where she attended college. While crossing the street in downtown Minneapolis, the light would always turn red before she could make it to the other side, said her husband, Takashi Tsuchiya.
"She started a campaign to change the city's law to change the length of the light," he said.
Later, she campaigned for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and attended the 1990 signing ceremony on the south lawn of the White House.
"Maureen was passionate about everybody being equal and being able to get into doors, to get into any building," said Marlene Perez, who served with her on the board of directors of Westchester Disabled on the Move. Whenever she heard of a building where ramps, curb cuts or automatic door openers were needed, she would begin making phone calls, Perez said.
Tsuchiya, who in recent years used crutches, a walker or a scooter to get around, worked with Westchester Disabled on the Move on a voting rights lawsuit by testing polling places for accessibility. She also waged a one-woman campaign to increase access to the Chappaqua train station during a renovation, arguing that everyone should be able to use the front door.
Tsuchiya was remembered for her strong principals and her willingness to speak out. She didn't hesitate to criticize allies when she felt she was right. Despite her disability, she also had exceptional energy. Dynamo was the description most often used by friends. She used much of that energy working on political campaigns, this year for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer and others. A few days before she died she was at the train station campaigning with U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey.
Assemblyman Adam Bradley said Tsuchiya was the difference between him winning and losing when he beat incumbent Naomi Matusow in a Democratic primary in 2002. She had more energy than he did, he said.
"There was someone there to kick me in the behind," he said.
And, when she felt it was necessary, she took him in hand. Tsuchiya didn't like the way Bradley dressed at the beginning of the campaign, so she took him to Family Britches in Chappaqua and made him change his wardrobe.
"This is just so Maureen," he said.
Clinton and Lowey were among a host of Democratic officials who attended Tsuchiya's memorial service at First Congregational Church in Chappaqua. In a particularly heartbreaking moment, Clinton directly addressed Tsuchiya' s 15-year-old daughter Hannah, who Clinton recalled was drafted by her mother in 2000 to put up lawn signs for Clinton's first U.S. Senate race. The signs, Clinton said with a smile, were bigger than she was.
"She was so proud of you. She loved you beyond words," Clinton said. "You gave her the gift of a lifetime."
Tsuchiya met her husband in 1978 when he was an exchange student from Tokyo and became friends with her family. They became a couple in 1985 when they met again at her brother's wedding and they were married in 1987. Their daughter was born in 1991 and shortly there after the family spent five years in Japan. Tsuchiya was devoted to her daughter, friends said, always organizing groups of friends to attend Hannah's ballet performances.
"I believe many people thought she was a hero, including myself and my daughter," her husband said.
Reach Elizabeth Ganga at eganga@lohud.com
By ELIZABETH GANGA
CHAPPAQUA - Some 400 people turned out for a memorial service yesterday for Maureen "Mo" Keating Tsuchiya, a Democratic activist and an advocate for the disabled who impressed friends and acquaintances with her energy and conviction.
Tsuchiya died early Saturday of a pulmonary embolism after knee surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. She would have turned 52 today.
Tsuchiya was born in Atkinson, Neb. She survived polio as a child and suffered lingering effects as she got older. Her difficulty walking inspired perhaps one of her first advocacy campaigns while she lived in Minnesota, where she attended college. While crossing the street in downtown Minneapolis, the light would always turn red before she could make it to the other side, said her husband, Takashi Tsuchiya.
"She started a campaign to change the city's law to change the length of the light," he said.
Later, she campaigned for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and attended the 1990 signing ceremony on the south lawn of the White House.
"Maureen was passionate about everybody being equal and being able to get into doors, to get into any building," said Marlene Perez, who served with her on the board of directors of Westchester Disabled on the Move. Whenever she heard of a building where ramps, curb cuts or automatic door openers were needed, she would begin making phone calls, Perez said.
Tsuchiya, who in recent years used crutches, a walker or a scooter to get around, worked with Westchester Disabled on the Move on a voting rights lawsuit by testing polling places for accessibility. She also waged a one-woman campaign to increase access to the Chappaqua train station during a renovation, arguing that everyone should be able to use the front door.
Tsuchiya was remembered for her strong principals and her willingness to speak out. She didn't hesitate to criticize allies when she felt she was right. Despite her disability, she also had exceptional energy. Dynamo was the description most often used by friends. She used much of that energy working on political campaigns, this year for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer and others. A few days before she died she was at the train station campaigning with U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey.
Assemblyman Adam Bradley said Tsuchiya was the difference between him winning and losing when he beat incumbent Naomi Matusow in a Democratic primary in 2002. She had more energy than he did, he said.
"There was someone there to kick me in the behind," he said.
And, when she felt it was necessary, she took him in hand. Tsuchiya didn't like the way Bradley dressed at the beginning of the campaign, so she took him to Family Britches in Chappaqua and made him change his wardrobe.
"This is just so Maureen," he said.
Clinton and Lowey were among a host of Democratic officials who attended Tsuchiya's memorial service at First Congregational Church in Chappaqua. In a particularly heartbreaking moment, Clinton directly addressed Tsuchiya' s 15-year-old daughter Hannah, who Clinton recalled was drafted by her mother in 2000 to put up lawn signs for Clinton's first U.S. Senate race. The signs, Clinton said with a smile, were bigger than she was.
"She was so proud of you. She loved you beyond words," Clinton said. "You gave her the gift of a lifetime."
Tsuchiya met her husband in 1978 when he was an exchange student from Tokyo and became friends with her family. They became a couple in 1985 when they met again at her brother's wedding and they were married in 1987. Their daughter was born in 1991 and shortly there after the family spent five years in Japan. Tsuchiya was devoted to her daughter, friends said, always organizing groups of friends to attend Hannah's ballet performances.
"I believe many people thought she was a hero, including myself and my daughter," her husband said.
Reach Elizabeth Ganga at eganga@lohud.com