John Hessler; Disabled Activist, State Health Official

John Hessler, 52, disabled activist who helped create the Center for Independent Living. At his death, Hessler was chief of expanded access to primary care programs for the state Department of Health Services. He had served some years ago as top deputy in the Department of Rehabilitation. Paralyzed from the neck down in a swimming accident in 1957, the wheelchair-bound Hessler helped develop the Physically Disabled Students Program while a student at UC Berkeley. In 1972, he and Ed Roberts went on to develop the Center for Independent Living, a program for disabled people that operates in 27 cities. On Monday in Sacramento of heart failure.