Commencement Address “I was stunned, and didn’t know what to say,” remembers Richard. “Then Art turned to me and said, ‘Why is the waitress talking about you this way? I don’t think you look any worse than you usually do.’” The pair refused to leave and were arrested under the “Ugly Law,” which until the mid-1970s allowed the arrest of anyone in public who was considered so “maimed, mutilated, or diseased” that their appearance was upsetting. This injustice propelled Richard headlong into the nascent disability movement. As a PSU class project, he asked US Bank and Tektronix if he could train supervisors on disability issues to see if it would improve employment rates for disabled people. It did, significantly, and Richard found his true calling. * * * Using his own training programs, Mr. Pimentel has spent the past 30 years educating tens of thousands of managers and workers. Government agencies and Fortune 500 companies acknowledge his programs as a breakthrough for disabled people in the workplace, including those with AIDS. He also conducts training and consults nationwide on topics as diverse as attitudinal change in health and human services, motivation of individuals with employment barriers, the future of disability management, return-to- work issues, and emotional ergonomics. He has authored and co-authored numerous books and professional publications, including Developing the New Employee, What Managers and Supervisors Need to Know About the ADA, and Taking Control of Workers Compensation Disability Costs. Music Within, a major motion picture of Mr. Pimentel’s life story staring Ron Livingston and Michael Sheen, was released in 2007 and is now available on DVD. Much of the movie was filmed on the Portland State campus. Today, Mr. Pimentel is designing a fresh training program for employers of disabled Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. For improving the lives of disabled people across the country, Portland State University is honored to award Richard Pimentel the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters and have him deliver the 2008 Commencement address. 9
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