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By Erika Anderson, Staff

ATLANTA-What started out as a plan to meet a girl turned into a lifelong career-and a discovered calling-for Ed McCoy. McCoy, 63, was recently named as the archdiocese's first director of the Ministry With Persons With Disabilities. Years ago, then a successful businessman, McCoy first began working with those with disabilities when he volunteered at a school for the blind in Nebraska, trying to woo a girl he liked. He didn't get the girl, but he did find a calling. Soon after, he began studying for his master's degree in rehabilitation of the blind at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, which he received in 1969. He later completed all the coursework for his doctorate at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md. He served as the director of recreation for the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis from 1965-68. In serving as an orientation and mobility specialist for the Montgomery County Schools in Rockville, Md., from 1969-78, McCoy worked with students with multiple disabilities. But it was his role as the founding chief executive officer and executive director of the Conklin Center for the Blind in Daytona Beach and Orlando, Fla., that McCoy is most proud of. "The Conklin Center serves the entire state of Florida," he said. "We work with youth and adults to get them off welfare and to work." McCoy served the Conklin Center for 22 years, during which time he attained the highest success rate in the world-86 percent-of multihandicapped blind people who had previously never worked and became gainfully employed. He wore many hats at the Center, but was fulfilled in seeing his students become independent. "You had to be a real advocate and a counselor, and a teacher and a companion," he said. "And then you have to fade away." McCoy, who has been listed in Who's Who in America since 1991, admits it was hard to leave the Conklin Center, which he had seen grow from 19 to 51 staff members and serve over 1,000 disabled persons, but said he was a much better "innovator, than a maintainer." His enthusiasm for taking on a new project at its conception is the reason he is excited about directing and developing the archdiocese's first central office for the Ministry With Persons With Disabilities. McCoy believes that serving those with disabilities comes down to the "three As"-attitude, architecture and accessibility. In attitude, those who are non-disabled "have to welcome disabled people in and respect them," McCoy said. "They have to be absolutely part of the celebrations and obligations of our church. Otherwise they are not truly equal." Architecture means making churches more accessible for those who use wheelchairs or those with other disabilities. "That's going to take some time. We have some old churches, and we don't want to change the look of the churches," he said. "At the same time, it's so easy to make small changes to our churches and schools to make them more accessible." Finally, accessibility means giving those with disabilities the tools to fully participate in worship and other church activities. "I hope to have a trained advocate volunteer person at every parish-to establish a network," McCoy said. "We need to establish a clearinghouse of materials and resources, and I am going to be looking for a parish in every deanery that will be an example." McCoy fully believes in being an active participant in parish life. He and his wife attend Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Atlanta. At his former parishes in Florida, McCoy served as a religious education instructor, as a eucharistic minister, on the pastoral advisory council, as a lector and as a choir member, among other ministries. His wife, Sharon, is a music minister who has served as the director of music and liturgy at several churches and is the founding director of the Atlanta New Vision Singers, a choir primarily composed of blind musicians. The father of three children said that there are pockets of successful ministries in churches throughout the archdiocese. He just hopes to see that grow. "We just need to take the really good job that everyone is doing on that and build on it," he said. "We need to make it easier, so we can take the trepidation and surprise and worry out of a scary new environment. We can help by sharing our resources across the diocese." As for his many years as an advocate, this former political science graduate has no doubt from whom he receives his inspiration. "I think God has told me to do this," he said. "I really think I'm called."