by Bud Keith
No room was ever quiet when Nelson Malbone was present. He was always working on some idea and always talking to others about his ideas and how to make them a reality. If Nelson was not the person running a meeting from the podium, then you could be sure he was exerting a telling influence from behind the scenes. A master of politics and group dynamics, he exuded confidence. When you were in conversation with Nelson, he often convinced you that his way was the right way.
This past summer, Nelson Leonard Malbone, age 73, founder and executive director of the Virginia Association of the Blind, died undergoing unexpected emergency surgery in Des Moines, IA, where he had been attending the ACB national convention. During convention week, he had been undergoing kidney dialysis. Nelson died doing what he did best — working to improve the lives of blind people.
He was a strong leader, and he had the knack of surrounding himself with people who agreed with his viewpoint, but wasted little time on people who wanted to disagree. Unlike many such leaders, however, Nelson wasn’t seeking power for its own sake, he was trying to get things done to help people who were blind, as quickly and as effectively as possible. An enigma in a democracy, he wouldn’t put up with the time it often takes to build consensus, and he wouldn’t let bureaucratic protocol slow him down. His stated purpose was to help other blind people and that’s what he did until the day he died.
Even those of us who knocked heads with Nelson had deep respect for his accomplishments. He became the consummate fund-raiser, and that money went to provide transportation and technology for hundreds of blind people. In rural Virginia where public transportation is mostly non-existent, Nelson bought vans for local groups of blind people around the state. He secured hundreds of used computers, refurbished them with access software, and sent them around the country to people in need.
Nelson was a force in the blindness field that comes along far too rarely. His leadership didn’t come from privilege nor from training. It came from an internal drive to make a difference. People serving in many civic and public organizations were forced by the sheer persuasive power of one man, Nelson Malbone, to accept blind people into the fabric of society.
Besides his work with VAB, Nelson Malbone recently was appointed to the Virginia Council on Assistive Technology. He was a member of the Chesapeake Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities for 20 years and was chairman for seven years. He served on the South Hampton Roads Disability Services Board for six years, was the organizer and manager of the South Hampton Roads Blind Bowlers League for 14 years. During this time, he served as the Blinded Veterans Association Regional Chairman for Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. He served as president of the Hampton Veterans Hospital Support Group for Blinded Veterans, and manager and service officer for the Blinded Veterans Volunteer office at the Veterans Medical Hospital, in Hampton, Va.
Nelson was appointed by Governor George Allen to the Board of Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI), and was reappointed by Governor James Gilmore and then served as chairman. His special honors include the WAVY TV-10 1996 Regional Jefferson Award for Volunteer Services and the 1997 Volunteer Services Award from the Blinded Veterans Association.
For many years, he served as a member of the Western Branch Lions Club and was past president of the Southside Lions Club and past chairman of the District 24-D Work for the Blind Committee. For four years, he was president of the American Council of Blind Lions. Nelson was also past chairman of the Tidewater Transportation District Commission Advisory Committee on Paratransit Services for Elderly and Persons with Disabilities and past chairman of the 1994 Hampton Roads Regional Symposium constituted by Mayor’s Committees/Commissions for Persons with Disabilities of Hampton Roads.
Nelson lost his sight in what most people would call the prime of life. We can all take inspiration from a man who truly used his loss of vision as an opportunity to improve the lives of others.
ACB and Virginia are very grateful to this man who just wouldn’t let anything stop him from doing good on behalf of blind people. We in Virginia truly miss this dynamic, generous man.