Disabilities champion remembered in Reno

Monday, May 17, 1999 | 7:32 a.m.

David Mckinnon, 63, was a civil rights leader who helped improve accessibility on city buses and at the airport. He died last week of complications from a March 5 traffic accident.

"He was a scrapper. He held his ground," said Kathy Olson, administrator at the Governor's Committee on the Employment of Persons With Disabilities.

Mckinnon became a paraplegic in 1962 when a drunken driver forced him off the road on Gold Hill near Virginia City. His fiancee died in that accident.

Mckinnon worked as an affirmative-action officer for Washoe County in the mid-1970s. Later, he created Barrier-Free Design, a firm that worked with local casinos, governments and businesses to make their properties more accessible.

He was a trailblazer in making sure service dogs were allowed in local businesses.

"He was happiest when he was fighting for people's rights," said Doug Welsh, who worked with Mckinnon and was a friend for 31 years.

Former Gov. Bob List named him an Outstanding Nevadan and President Reagan honored him in 1987 with a Victory Award for Overcoming Adversity.

Mckinnon told a reporter in 1997 about the struggle after the tragic accident 37 years ago.

"They put me in an old-folks home," he said.

"They wouldn't let me out. That was the attitude back then, that crips weren't able to take care of themselves.

"Mckinnon said he proceeded to become a "royal pain in the butt.

"I locked out the attendants. I yelled and threw food. I raised hell. They were trying to treat me as a sick person. Hell, I wasn't sick. I just had a mobility problem."