Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 05:23:57 :
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, Dec. 15, 2002
Vivian Walter -
campaigned for Lanterman Act
Vivian Walter, a tireless advocate for the developmentally disabled who helped shepherd into law the landmark LantermanPetris-Short Act that gave them the right to live independently, has died at the age of 88.
Mrs. Walter, who died of cancer at her home in Belvedere on Nov. 8, was driven by seeing her own developmentally disabled son being denied the rights others took for granted, friends said.
"She learned there were so many doors closed to them," said Brenda McIvor, director of Cedars of Marin, a nonprofit that assists the developmentally disabled. Mrs. Walter served on the group's board for many years.
Mrs. Walter was born in Oakland and attended the private Hamlin School in San Francisco. She also attended UC Berkeley, then dabbled briefly in acting with the Pasadena Community Playhouse. When that didn't work out, she worked in public relations, first for the film industry and later at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
Beginning in the mid-1950s, Mrs. Walter began working to improve the rights of the developmentally disabled. She started as a volunteer at the San Francisco Association for Retarded Citizens. It was there that she became so passionate an advocate for the developmentally disabled, and grew determined to see them treated like anyone else.
"She was a very strong advocate of the idea that individuals with developmental disabilities should have the same rights as any one of us," McIvor said.
Mrs. Walter pushed that idea in Sacramento, rallying legislators and assembling the support that resulted in the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act.
"She was the soul of the idea," McIvor said.
The 1967 law was a bipartisan reform effort that helped empty the state's mental hospitals and limited the state's right to detain the mentally ill and retarded.
The law says that only those who pose an imminent threat to themselves or others, or who are so gravely disabled that they cannot care for themselves, can be held against their will.
Similar laws were enacted across the country as part of a movement to prevent the warehousing of the mentally ill or developmentally disabled in institutions when they could live independently with community-based support.
Mrs. Walter served on the board of Golden Gate Regional Center, which was established in the wake of the Lanterman Act to assist the developmentally disabled. She also was appointed by Govs. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown and Jerry Brown to serve on the State Council on Developmental Disabilities.
Mrs. Walter was preceded in death by her husband, Stephen Walter. She is survived by her son, Edwin "Ned" Walter of Novato; two stepdaughters, Daphne Walter Bransten of San Francisco and Jennifer Walter Fowler of New York City; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Plans for a memorial service are pending. Memorial gifts may be made to Cedars of Marin, P.O. Box 947, Ross, CA 94957.
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