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hack89

(39,171 posts)
Fri Jan 25, 2013, 04:01 PM Jan 2013

A true heart warming story about the human spirit.

Larry Selman, Who Aided Others $1 at a Time, Dies at 70

Larry Selman weighed three pounds when he was born on April 2, 1942, and was not expected to survive the day. He rallied, though, grew to become a friendly, husky boy and attended public school until he was about 16, when a teacher explained to him that he would probably never earn a high school diploma because, by all measures, Larry was — in the parlance of the 1950s — mentally retarded.

Mr. Selman dropped out of school soon afterward. He lived in Brooklyn with his parents, Phillip and Minnie, while working as a laborer for the parks department. After the death of his mother in 1968, following close upon the death of his father, Mr. Selman moved into a small apartment in Greenwich Village with the help of an uncle, Murray Schaul. He spent the rest of his life there, most of it in obscurity, though in his final years he enjoyed a gentle fame among filmgoers familiar with the 2002 documentary about him, “The Collector of Bedford Street.”

The “collector” in the title refers to Mr. Selman’s prodigious work as a neighborhood fund-raiser. From 1970 until his death he collected more than $300,000 by some estimates — from people he approached in the Village, one at a time, requesting donations of $1 and $2 each. He collected money for St. Vincent’s Hospital, the families of Sept. 11 victims, Muscular Dystrophy research, AIDS research, Kiwanis International projects and animal rescue groups, among others.

“Collector” also suggests how Mr. Selman’s daily conversations with neighbors and passers-by, and his dogged way of reminding them of the needs of others, brought people together and shepherded them toward civic-mindedness.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/nyregion/larry-selman-a-shepherd-of-greenwich-village-dies-at-70.html?ref=nyregion

I hope I can rent that film
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A true heart warming story about the human spirit. (Original Post) hack89 Jan 2013 OP
kick HiPointDem Jan 2013 #1
If you just wanted to get me to cry today - it worked. dballance Jan 2013 #2
 

dballance

(5,756 posts)
2. If you just wanted to get me to cry today - it worked.
Fri Jan 25, 2013, 04:44 PM
Jan 2013

Great story. I had a "mentally retarded" uncle who passed away late late year. He was a kind, gentle soul.

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