Disability, shmisability. Bob Mora never let his "disability" keep
him from traveling around with world, living and working on the
remote Navajo Indian Reservation, earning advanced college degrees,
heading government programs and non-profit agencies, or being a
world-class hiker.
Mora was born with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease,
a degenerative disorder of the nerves and muscles that always limited his mobility, and for most of his life confined him
to a wheelchair. In 2008 it took his life.
Mora was active all his life, and at
the forefront locally since moving to Tucson in 1978, of advocating
for and developing accessibility for those with physical limitations.
His first love is for getting out among the wonders of nature -
which he legitimately calls hiking, even if done in a wheelchair.
Mora was a charter member of the committee Pima County put together
under the guidance of former District Five Supervisor and now Congressman
Raúl Grijalva to design and oversee the development of Feliz Paseos.
Expected to open for public use around the first of July, Feliz
Paseos is a 50-acre county park carefully designed for universal
accessibility - and to provide various degrees of challenges for
people with various types and levels of limited ability. See sidebar
story.
"My philosophy was to not discriminate against the handicapped," he
said. "Don't just set up a desert park for the handicapped.
I wanted to set it up for people with various abilities so everyone
can enjoy it. Not all disabled people have the same limitations
... Feliz Paseos is not entirely accessible to everyone - each
user can pick his or her own level of challenge to experience."
Challenges clearly are what Bob Mora likes. In his life he has
hiked and camped in many parts of the United States - and in Europe,
in Canada and in Central America.
Mora was born in Costa Rica and raised first in New England, then
in Florida. Despite his physical condition, his parents took him
camping and on a variety of outings - which set the stage for his
many subsequent endeavors.
He earned a degree from San Jose State University before disabled
accessibility was common and went on to earn a master's degree
from San Francisco State University. After college he worked with
others to invent aides for those with limitations - a steering
wheel for those who have only one usable hand and an electric arm
that folds and lifts wheelchairs in and out of vehicles. "I
enjoy challenges and working out solutions to problems," he
told an interviewer in 1994.
He took a job on the Navajo Reservation, setting up a rehabilitation
center in the remote community of Toyel. There he hiked and camped
as much as he could, considering the sometimes difficult conditions
there. "We were completely snowed in for two of the winters
and the National Guard had to bring in supplies," he recalls.
Mora won a fellowship to work on a master's degree in public administration
at the University or Arizona and arrived in Tucson in 1978. He
took a job with Pima County, where he worked for 17 years. From
1981 to 1991 he directed the Health Department s Children's Evaluation
Center; he then worked in the Superintendent of Public Instruction's
office until retiring from the county in 1994.
But he remained active in many arenas. He helped get an accessible
viewing platform installed next to a small lake in the Buenos Aires
National Wildlife Refuge near Arivaca, raised money for the Wonderful
Outdoor World program that gives low-income and disabled children
a chance to experience nature, and served as president of the non-profit
group Awareness to Access.
In the late 1990s, Laural Park came up with the idea of developing
an accessible park on 50 acres of available land near her home
in the Tucson Mountains foothills. The county bought the land for
Feliz Paseos in 1998 and Mora was enlisted to serve on the planning
committee, which he and Park co-chaired.
Mora, Park and Robie Pardee of the county's Natural Resources,
Parks and Recreation Department eventually became certified by
the Natural Center for Accessibility to develop trails under the
sophisticated Universal Trails Assessment Process. They used digitized
maps and satellite geographic imagery to lay out the Feliz Paseos
trails and measure their grades, widths, cross slopes and other
relevant conditions. This information will be on signs along the
Feliz Paseos trails.
"I learned a lot about trails," he said. "I'm always
learning about trails - I never stop, never."
And the people of limited abilities who are able to enjoy Feliz
Paseos for many decades into the future will be forever grateful
to Bob Mora and his thirst for challenges that helped enable them
to experience more of nature, and thereby to enrich their lives.