Harlan Dean Hahn
Biographical Materials1939 - 2008
INDEX
SON OF SCHOOL SUPT. AT ORCHARD HAS POLIO
(Courier Special Service)
Osage, la.�Another case of infantile paralysis has come into the county, this time at Orchard, with little six-year-old Harlan Hahn son of Supt. and Mrs. Harold Hahn, as the victim.
The little fellow has been ill since Wednesday evening, and it was determined Sunday morning at Mason City that he had contracted polio. His parents took him directly to Des Moines, to the Brock hospital. School at Orchard was not in session Monday.
This is the only child of the Hahn family, Harlan's twin brother dying when an infant. Mrs. Hahn is the former Ada Tollefson of St. Ansgar.
(Waterloo Daily Courier - Tuesday, September 25, 1945)
Orchard Boy Winning War With Polio
Harlan Hahn, 8, of Orchard, is shown above with one of the hobbies, milk bottle cap collecting, that have meant so much to him in battling: the ravages of polio. He has more than 6,000 caps, some from foreign countries. That he is an avid sports fan is attested by the football poised in his left hand.
Osage, IA � Eight-year old Harlan Hahn, son of Superintendent and Mrs. H. E. Hahn, Orchard, has packed a lot of living in his eight years. With indomitable courage he is slowly winning his fight against the aftermath of polio, and seemingly, having a good time doing so.
It was August 23, 1934, just a little more than a month after his sixth birthday that he was sticken.
He was taken to Blank Memorial Hospital, Des Moines, where conditions were crowded, for Des Moines was afflicted with epidemic scale polio. Another Orchard boy died from polio and in Mitchell County, comparatively small, there were 11 cases that year.
Hospitalization then at Kirksville, MO, with little hope given his parents. In the first 13 months of Harlan�s fight against polio nine months were spent in hospitals. Then came Rochester in October, 1946, and Harlan was beginning to walk again and to have a brace.
His recover was halted abruptly, shortly after Christmas, for just as he was walking again, he fell at home and fractured one leg.
This was a decided setback, but judging from the output of labor on his hobbies, time did not lag despite the pain.
For seven weeks he lay flat on his back in a cast, all the time working with his collections, either milk bottle caps or stamps, or he did preliminary school work with the aid of his mother, herself a teacher.
Now Harlan is in excellent sports. His brown eyes snap when he talks of his first love � sports- �I like whichever one is in season, I guess� he says when pressed for his favoirtie sport, and he uses his crutches like a veteran.
He exercises, plays, reads, works on his hobbies � perhaps lives more fully than the boy who is free to come and go at waill. He also has stamps and coins. His milk bottle top collection began on Easter, 1946. It began with a start by his uncle, Luther Tollefson, St. Ansgar, owner of the Pin Hill Dairy, St. Ansgar. Harlan now has 6000 tops from every state of the Union and foreign countries of Alaska, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Hawaian Islands, Venezuela, Holland, Scotland, and Canada.
He has between 6000 and 7000 match covers.
He has foreign stamps and home stamps of every type and unusual foreign coing collection and a Lincoln head collection that he is now working on � pennies from 1090 � 1946.
(WATERLOO SUNDAY COURIER, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1948)
The honor means more this time than usual for Harlan is suffering from the aftermath of polio and uses crutches. The required number of 21 points was necessary, and Hahn made those, with an additional 5 points.
He began scouting in November 1950, achieved second class in February, 1951, Star in December 1951, Life in June 1952, and had completed his requirements for Eagle badge in September 1953
{Other paragraphs, about other scouts, awards, etc., were omitted }
Waterloo Courier Feb 10, 1954
Harlan Hahn, Osage, Wins State Contest
Osage � Harlan Hahn was revealed Saturday as one of tow first place winners in the Iowa Federation of Women�s Clubs essay contest for Iowa high school seniors.
The other winner is Mary Jane Madsen, Shelbe. Harlan will appear on the College News Conference on the ABC-TV network on March 24 and Mary Jane on January 27.
Second place went to Marvin Gatch, Tripoli; third to Beverly Birchmier, Bloomfield, and fourth to Norman Vande Kamp, Laurel, and Edna Robinson, Leon
(Waterloo Courier Sunday, January 13, 1957)
Harlan Hahn Will Report on Scouting to Gov. Loveless
OSAGE � Harlan Hahn, Explorer Scout from Post 3 Osage, will make a report Saturday to Gov. Herschel Loveless in DeMoines. He will speak on behalf of all Scouts in the state. The report will be broadcast over WHO Des Moines, at 11:45 a.m. A special committee selected Hahn from a group of Explorers from all councils in Iowa.
(Mason City Globe Gazette February 8, 1957)
FELLOWSHIP - Harlan Hahn, son of Mr. and Mrs. H.E. Hahn, Osage, has been awarded a $2,000 fellowship in political science at Harvard University. He will be working toward his doctorate.
He was a student at Drake University this summer.
(Mason City Globe-Gazette - Monday, September 18, 1961)
In Memoriam: Harlan Hahn, 68
The USC College political scientist was a major force in the disability rights movement.
Harlan D. Hahn, activist and leading authority on disability rights, and a faculty member in USC College for 35 years, has died. He was 68.
Hahn, professor of political science specializing in American and urban politics, died after a heart attack on April 23 in his Santa Monica home, said his only child, Emily Hahn.
�My dad had a great passion for helping the disadvantaged,� Hahn, 29, of Irvine, said. �He cared about people. He was an amazingly smart, smart man. But the funny thing was, he didn�t think he was smart.�
Hahn, who had a joint appointment in the Keck School of Medicine of USC as a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, earned his master�s and doctorate at Harvard University and authored or co-authored about a dozen books. They included Pulitzer Prize-nominated Ghetto Revolts: The Politics of Violence in American Cities (The Macmillan Co., 1973), Disabled Persons and Earthquake Hazards (University of Colorado Institute of Behavioral Science, 1988) and Urban America and Its Police: From the Postcolonial Era through the 1960s (The University Press of Colorado, 2003).
He wrote hundreds of articles and editorials about heath politics and policies, criminal justice policy, and urban issues and politics for professional journals, books and major metropolitan newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times.
Hahn left USC in 2007. He had been writing his memoir when he died.
�Harlan Hahn�s death is an enormous loss because of his international reputation on disability research and his activism,� said Ann Crigler, chair and professor of political science in the College. �He was also a very well-known researcher in American and urban politics in general. He was one of our department�s most prolific, highly-cited and distinguished professors.�
Gelya Frank, professor of anthropology in the College, and professor of occupational science and occupational therapy, recalled arriving at USC in the early 1980s, when Hahn and junior faculty members were developing the university�s first disability studies program.
At that time Hahn was also involved in a famous right-to-die case in which quadriplegic Elizabeth Bouvia had sued a California hospital refusing her request to starve to death.
Hahn had filed an amicus brief with the California Supreme Court, arguing against the woman�s wish to die and urging society to better support the disabled. Bouvia eventually lost the case and later decided she wanted to live.
�I recognized that what Harlan was doing was exciting and important,� Frank said. �He was on the front lines of the shift in political thinking about the disabled. Rather than disability as a private medical matter, he believed in treating the disabled as a minority group that deserved rights.�
Hahn pushed for the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, prohibiting discrimination based on disabilities, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a wider-ranging civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on disabilities, his friends said.
�We wouldn�t have these laws without people like Harlan,� Frank said. �We have to see Harlan Hahn as one of the major figures in the disability rights movement.�
Born July 9, 1939, in Osage, Iowa, Harlan Hahn had an identical twin who died at birth and he grew up as an only child, Emily Hahn said. His parents were teachers. At age 5 he contracted polio and spent the next six years in and out of hospitals. He entered school at 11 and used a wheelchair most of his life.
Before entering Harvard, Hahn earned his bachelor�s magna cum laude at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. He was a perpetual student, earning two additional master�s degrees � an M.S. in 1982 from California State University, Los Angeles, and an M.P.H. in 2004 from UCLA.
�Education was really, really important to him,� said Emily Hahn, who is earning her master�s degree in psychology at California State University, Long Beach. �He tried to do the best in helping people who didn�t have access to an education or to health care get opportunities. He wanted people in disadvantaged situations to have a voice.�
At times Hahn�s activism hit closer to home. In 1998 Hahn filed a suit against USC, claiming that the University Park campus had numerous physical barriers preventing disabled people from equal access to structures. As a result of a settlement in the case, the university has steadily increased its budget for removing such barriers.
�My dad was a real fireball,� Emily Hahn said. �If I accomplish half of what my dad did in his life, I�ll be happy.�
Judy Garner, associate provost for faculty development, created a stem cell research ethics course with Hahn.
�I appreciated working with him,� said Garner, an associate professor in the Keck School. �He broadened my perspective on how stem cell work has become a political force, and how the development of this research area has resulted in conversations about ethical dilemmas that really need airing.�
Longtime friend Gerald Caiden, professor in the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, remembered Hahn as a complex and tireless man whose �mind bubbled over with ideas.�
�When I heard of his death, I immediately felt a loss,� Caiden said. �Never again would I hear his unmistakable voice, �Ah, Gerald, how nice of you to phone. Listen, I have this new idea I want to try on you �� �
A memorial for Hahn will take place May 15 at 8:30 p.m. inside the craft room in Joslyn Park, 633 Kensington Road, Santa Monica. In lieu of flowers, donations may go to the Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley.
For questions about the memorial, e-mail HarlanHahnMemorial@gmail.com
http://college.usc.edu/news/stories/475/in-memoriam-harlan-hahn-68/
USC Professor Advocated Civil Rights; Access for Disabled
OBITUARIES / Harlan Hahn, 1939 - 2008
May 10, 2008 | Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Harlan Hahn, a longtime USC professor of political science and champion of disability rights who successfully sued the university to improve access for disabled people campuswide, died April 23 at his Santa Monica home. He was 68. The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter, Emily.
Hahn was already in the vanguard of the disability rights movement when he joined the USC faculty to teach political science in 1972. He pushed for the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibited discrimination against the disabled, and the more sweeping Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.
In 1998 he filed a lawsuit against USC to remove physical barriers that limited the mobility of disabled individuals. Hahn, who had polio as a child and used a wheelchair and crutches, brought the suit after having to miss a number of meetings held in buildings that he had difficulty entering. But instead of demanding that the university address only the architectural deficiencies that affected him, he insisted that it eliminate obstacles throughout the campus.
In 2001 the university settled the lawsuit, agreeing to set aside a substantial amount of money each year for barrier removal, eventually budgeting $1 million annually.
The campus is "quite a model now for accessibility," Sid Wolinsky, co-founder and legal director of Disability Rights Advocates, the Berkeley-based advocacy group that represented Hahn, said this week.
He remembered Hahn as "a thinker and a fighter" who tackled issues from a practical as well as a theoretical standpoint. "He was one of the early pioneers who really developed the notion of disability as a civil rights movement" rather than a charity issue, Wolinsky said.
Hahn was born in Osage, Iowa, on July 9, 1939. The only child of teachers, he had an identical twin who died at birth. At 5 he contracted polio and spent the next several years in and out of hospitals. He was 11 when he entered school and devoted himself to education.
"One of the things he believed in was knowledge being powerful and giving a voice. He always was learning," said Emily Hahn, a Costa Mesa resident who will enter a doctoral program this year.
Harlan Hahn earned a bachelor's degree in political science at St. Olaf College in Minnesota before going to Harvard for his master's and doctoral degrees. In 1982 he received a master's in rehabilitation counseling from Cal State L.A., and in 2004 he finished a master's in public health at UCLA. In 1994, he was given a joint appointment at USC's Keck School of Medicine as a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science.
The Social Security Death Index says: HARLAN DEAN HAHN was born 09 Jul 1939, and died 23 Apr 2008, residing at ZIP CODE 90402 (Santa Monica, Los Angeles, CA); SSN 579-58-8162 was issued in the District of Columbia.
Compiled by K. Kittleson and S. Bell, 1/12/2010
Updated 11/2020