Max Starkloff
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Max Starkloff (September 18, 1937, St. Louis, Missouri – December, 2010) was a disability rights activist. Starkloff became disabled in a car accident in 1959 and subsequently co-founded three organizations.
In 1959, at the age of 21, Starkloff was involved in a car accident and became a quadriplegic with limited use of his left arm.[1] After the crash, his mother was told he would only live for four more days; however, he survived and was inspired to fight for disability rights.[1] From the ages of 26 to 38, he lived at St. Joseph's Hill infirmary, a nursing home in St. Louis. He married Colleen Kelly, a physical therapist at his nursing home, in 1975, and the couple adopted three children.[2] In 2007, he fell off of his wheelchair and punctured a lung, forcing him to use a ventilator for the remainder of his life.[1] He died from influenza complications on December 27, 2010.[2]
