Todd Reynolds’ work was innovative, and his research important. But above all, it was personal. The post-doctoral fellow at Syracuse University’s Center on Human Policy, Law and Disability Studies, died at his home on Sunday due to natural causes. He was 37 years old.

Reynolds spent the past school year researching the resources and assistance given to people with disabilities during natural disasters-people like him. Legally blind and with only limited hearing provided by Cochlear implants, he was part of the first group at SU to benefit from a four-year grant to support post-doctoral scholars wishing to study rehabilitation and disability policy.

‘Todd was an interesting scholar in that he came from an area of study which is only just now taking up the issues of disability,” said Steve Bellini, associate professor in the School of Education and co-director of the grant program.

Drawing on his own experiences with a lack of accommodations for his impairments, Reynolds hoped to assist those like him through policy changes and research.

‘It’s well understood that the environment has a huge impact on disability,” Bellini said. “It’s not the level of the person’s impairment but the level of accommodations that are present or not present. It was very crucial work.”

Reynolds’ grant position ended at the beginning of June, but he wanted to gain teaching experience. Having earned his Ph.D. in geography at the University of Oklahoma and two master’s degrees from the University of Alabama, he was hired by the geography department within the College of Arts and Sciences to teach an online summer course that would highlight his research.

His class, “Geography of Disability” looked at how different regions accommodated those with disabilities. Reynolds himself spent his time in Oklahoma looking specifically at how disabled people in the Midwest coped with tornadoes, and then after relocating to Syracuse, with snow and other severe weather.

“I am very saddened by his death,” Bellini said. “It only underscores the idea that we expect our time on earth is extensive, and yet we should live each day fully.”

A memorial service will be held at the Center on Human Policy on July 9 at noon.

Published on July 8, 2008 at 12:00 pm