|
 He’s
Driven to Help Others
by Richard S. Chang, April 18, 2004, Parade Magazine
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As a child
growing up in Michigan, Gary Talbot used to sit on the curb in
front of his house and, without looking, try to guess the models
of passing cars by the sounds of their exhausts. Talbot’s
childhood dream was to open a car dealership, and he eventually
became a Honda specialist in the mountains of Colorado.
Then, late one night in 1980, his life changed: He fell asleep
at the wheel and flipped his car. Talbot, then 24, was paralyzed
from the waist down.
“It was the first time I had the car on the road, and the
engine’s just purring like a kitten upside down,” recalls
Talbot, revealing the sense of humor that has become his
trademark. “And I’m laying in there laughing and thinking, ‘Man,
I do good work.’”
These days, Talbot, a vehicle systems engineer, is doing a
tremendous amount of good work. After struggling to achieve his
career ambitions, he is altering the way the automotive industry
looks at building vehicles for the disabled.
“The easier it is for the disabled to get in and out of a
vehicle, the more they’ll go out.”
Following the accident, Talbot wanted to continue working as a
mechanic but returned to Michigan to be closer to family and
friends. “No one would allow me to fill out an application,” he
says, “so I switched gears from trying to find a job to trying
to start a business.”
A year later, at 25, Talbot opened a repair shop outside Ann
Arbor. He built custom jigs out of planks of wood to prop up
cars at various angles so that he could work from his
wheelchair. Six years later, however, a life-threatening blood
infection forced him to close his successful shop. Unsure of his
next move, Talbot enrolled in a community college. He spent
three and a half years juggling his classwork with trips to the
hospital before being accepted by the University of Michigan’s
prestigious mechanical engineering program.
His degree led to a job at General Motors’ engineering
department in Warren, Mich., and in 2000 Talbot joined the
Mobility Center, which he jokingly calls his “sandbox.” In this
corner of the research-and-development garage, Talbot and his
team are changing the automotive landscape.
There are more than 54 million disabled people in the U.S. and
an additional 76 million Americans over the age of 50. “Gary has
single-handedly educated this company about the strong demand
for empowerment of his peer group out there in the world,” says
GM Vice President John Smith.
At the “sandbox,” two rows of wheelchairs and motorized scooters
sit against a brick wall next to a workbench, a welding station
curtained by clear vinyl and a silver minivan. From his own
wheelchair, Talbot, 48, tests a hoist that can lift a scooter
into the back of a minivan. He does this effortlessly with one
hand, which is a critical characteristic. “The easier it is for
disabled people to get in and out of a vehicle,” he says, “the
more they’ll go out.”
Although other car manufacturers such as Toyota and Ford have
mobility departments, Talbot’s pivoting and articulating seat
base became the first mobility accessory to reach a major auto
dealership when it hit showrooms last October. Along with the
other designs on his drawing board—such as car doors that open
wider—it will improve the quality of life for millions.
“He wants to do good for people,” says his wife, Pam. “Just last
weekend he was talking to a lady about her problems and what
they could do to modify her van. He called her on his weekend
off, like he typically does. They spoke for hours, and she’s
just one of many.”
Recently, Talbot was assigned to a select group of executives
who spearhead the design of future vehicles. He hopes to
integrate the concerns of the disabled and elderly into the
earliest stages of design. “I’m just thinking about the lives
we’ll touch—all the people who will be able to get out and do
things that otherwise would be a whole lot more difficult,” he
says. “To me, that’s the rewarding part.”
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