Gov. Thornburgh will be remembered for helping people with intellectual disabilities | Opinion

Articles on the recent passing of former Gov. Dick Thornburgh have sought to highlight his achievements and capture his character.

We all know he was governor of our state and U.S. Attorney General. And he was universally recognized as an honest, intelligent and empathetic leader.

But what’s been missing in these remembrances is discussion of perhaps his most significant and lasting achievement — leading the movement toward community living and treatment for people who are mentally ill and those who have intellectual disabilities.

As a young father near the beginning of his career, Gov. Thornburgh suffered a painful personal loss very similar to that of President-Elect Joe Biden. His first wife was killed in an auto accident, which also left their infant son with serious brain damage.

After he was elected governor, Gov. Thornburgh and his second wife, Ginny, decided to focus on the need to develop better options for the care of people like his son, Peter.

In 1979, soon after Gov. Thornburgh took office, the issue would arise in a class action lawsuit launched in federal court to close Pennhurst State School and Hospital and move its residents into community living arrangements.

Following an extensive trial, Federal District Court Judge Raymond J. Broderick ordered Pennhurst’s closure early in 1981. The ruling would spark a rash of appeals for years to follow.

During the first round of litigation, the governor attempted to secure funding from the General Assembly for community-based living and treatment programs. That effort met with little success.

After the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Broderick’s closure order, Gov. Thornburgh increased pressure on the legislature to redirect funding from institutions to community living facilities. He directed me, as state Public Welfare Secretary at the time, to facilitate this goal.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice was pursuing a lawsuit to protest unprecedented federal involvement in what should have remained a state decision over Pennhurst.

Gov. Thornburgh knew that the Secretary of Public Welfare has the authority to close state mental retardation facilities, and that’s what he ordered me to do.

The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently overruled Judge Broderick’s closure order. By then, however, we were already moving forward to close Pennhurst and other similar state facilities, having successfully pressured the Legislature to fund our efforts.

I believe the development of community-based living and treatment facilities was the major and most lasting accomplishment of the Gov. Thornburgh administration. Certainly it was the most important effort for Ginny Thornburgh.

It had a huge impact on thousands of families in Pennsylvania who were given greater access to see their loved ones and a stronger belief that compassionate and rehabilitative care was being offered.

Pennsylvania came to lead the nation in the improved care and treatment of people with intellectual disabilities and those who suffer from mental illness.

As U.S. Attorney General, Dick Thornburgh would go on to champion the development and passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was an accomplishment on the national level of what he and Ginny had spearheaded in Pennsylvania.

This empathy for those less fortunate than himself was a sign of Dick’s extraordinary strength of character. Would that we might find more political leaders today like Dick Thornburgh.

Walter W. Cohen is a former Secretary of Public Welfare and state Attorney General. He resides in Harrisburg.

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