Advocate’s dream of center for blind lives on
REGGIE ANGLEN
Reggie Anglen, a longtime advocate for people with visual impairments and other disabilities, never gave up on his dream to create a local resource center for the blind.
Friends and colleagues who will be gathering Saturday for his funeral service hope the plan will yet be realized. Anglen, 65, died Sept. 1.
“The goal lives on,” said Denis Liggins, board president of LightHouse at Teachable Moments, the organization Anglen founded to help improve the lives of central Ohio adults with vision loss. “I think we’ve got a pretty committed group here.”
The Dispatch wrote in April about Anglen’s efforts to fill the void that has lingered and grown since Columbus last had a nonprofit agency offering a broad range of services for adults who are blind or visually impaired.
“We have no place,” the East Side resident said.
The oldest of 11 children, Anglen was born in Cleveland and moved to Columbus to attend the Ohio State School for the Blind. The area Lion’s Club chose Anglen, an Ohio State University graduate, as its man of the year in 1974, and he was a past president of the Columbus Association of Black Journalists.
Liggins, a close friend and roommate during their college days, said Anglen was always “serious beyond his years,” determined to work on behalf of both the African American and disability communities.
“I had the pleasure of teaching him to ride the bus around the city, so that he could go where he wanted to, when he wanted to,” Liggins said. Anglen found himself with an unofficial guide dog when one of Liggins’ pets “decided to adopt Reggie,” Liggins said. “He walked Reggie to the bus stop and back every day.”
John Coats II, president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, met Anglen as a fellow community activist 20 years ago, when Anglen worked in communications at Ohio State. “He had a
disability that did not slow him down,” Coats said. “He just kept moving and was proud of the tools that he had to use.”
Anglen, born blind, thrived after moving to the blind school, said his sister Robin Anglen Allen. “He just took off. He soared like an eagle.”
She and her brother used to talk on the phone every morning at 11:45. “Now, I just look at his picture every day at that time,” she said. “And I smile.”
Visitation for Anglen is set for 9 a.m. Saturday, with funeral services at 10 a.m. at Marlan J. Gary Funeral Home, the Chapel of Peace North, 2500 Cleveland Ave.