Disability rights advocate Sabatier dies at 63

Galveston native Charlie Sabatier, who became a nationally known advocate for disability rights after he was wounded in Vietnam, died Thursday in Wellesley, Mass. He was 63.

Sabatier, also known for his work with veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, died after a battle with cancer.

“My husband talked with other veterans about the three miracles in his life,” Peggy Griffin, his wife, said in a news release. “Charlie used to say, ‘My three miracles are, I got out of Vietnam alive; I met and married Peggy, and we had three children.’ Then he’d tell them, ‘You’ll have your miracles, too, but you have to go out there and find them.’”

Sabatier was paralyzed from the waist down during the first Tet Offensive in 1968. He was crossing a battlefield to help another soldier when a bullet severed his spinal cord.

He would spend the rest of his life fighting for improved access for the handicapped, advocating for sidewalks with curb cuts, public buildings with elevators and other policy changes.

“My goal is equal citizenship,” Sabatier told The Boston Globe in a 1988 story. “Nothing less is acceptable. We’re looking for equitable treatment, although not necessarily identical. A disabled person should have the same options as everybody else.”

Sabatier grew up in Galveston and graduated from Ball High School in 1964. His first attempt at college did not pan out, so he went into the U.S. Army. He was 22 when he was wounded.

Sabatier later would graduate from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and from the University of San Diego School of Law.

In addition to his wife and children (triplets Charles, Caroline and Danielle), Sabatier leaves his stepmother, Edith, of Santa Fe; three sisters, Lisa, of Santa Fe, and Sandy Saeed and Crystal Foreman, both of Dickinson; and two brothers, Mark and Michael, also of Dickinson.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday in St. John the Evangelist Church in Wellesley, Mass. Burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the children’s education fund — Griffin/Sabatier Family Fund, TD Bank North, 380 Washington St., Wellesley, MA 02481.