Willson, Harold L., 1926-1994.

Harold L. Willson was born May 13, 1926, in Oak Hill, West Virginia. After his father passed away in 1946, Willson took a job as a coal miner in order to pay for his college education. On February 14, 1948, Willson was struck by a slate fall, breaking his back. Four months later, Willson was transported by train across the country, for treatment at the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Vallejo, California. During his two years at the facility, he underwent multiple surgeries and extensive physical therapy. He also met Patricia Leister, a member of the nursing staff, and the couple married in 1950. That same year, Willson obtained employment at the Bank of America, and in 1952 began a degree in Business Administration at Golden Gate College, which he completed in 1956. In 1957, Willson joined the Kaiser Foundation Medical Care program as an accountant; he would stay with Kaiser in various positions until his retirement in 1977. In 1964, Willson became a Volunteer Consultant to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board of Directors, with the goal of removing architectural barriers in order to make 100% ridership possible on the BART system. Through years of effort, Willson became a major force in altering the initial project designs, and gaining additional funding from the state legislature, to ensure that BART trains and stations would be open to users of all ability levels. Willson's work was rewarded by the creation of the first tranist system in the country to be fully accessible to the disabled. After his successful transformation of BART, Willson trurned his attention to Bay Area bus service, realizing that BART's usefulness would be limited if disabled useres were unable to travel to and from the stations via public transit. Willson's efforts resulted in the installation of wheelchair lifts on local buses. Willson's work on public transportaiton accessiblility garnered national and even international attention. He received frequent requests for information from others interested in improving transit accessibility, testified at regional and national heartings on transportation issues, and was in 1975 the subject of a German documentary. Harold Willson died in 1994.