Dick Hoyt, 80, died peacefully on Wednesday at his home in Holland, Massachusetts. He rose to prominence after running over a thousand road races with his wheelchair-using son, Rick, for whom he was a loyal and caring companion.
What got them the most attention was running in the famous Boston Marathon more than twenty-five times.
Dick traversed the United States with his son, competing in races for decades. Rick’s spina bifida and cerebral palsy made it hard for him to move, but they worked together to reach their goal.
They completed the 26.2-mile course in Boston for the first time in 1981 and finished it twenty-four more times before being inducted into the Boston Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame in 2012.
They were honored with athletes like Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Emil Zatopek, who are known all over the world.
Even though Dick is no longer alive, his legacy lives on through Rick, who is determined to fulfill Dick’s goal of inspiring people to challenge themselves and break limits, regardless of their situation or physical limitations.
Rick Hoyt was born in 1962 with cerebral palsy and quadriplegia and could not move or communicate verbally.
Yet, because of Tufts University engineers’ creativity, he could communicate in 1972 by using a computer that allowed him to choose letters by tapping his skull.
His first words were “Go Bruins”—a monument to his love of sports that demonstrated that even though he couldn’t speak, he had strong convictions and limitless excitement.
In 2010, his father, Dick, published the book “Devoted: The Story of a Father’s Love for His Son,” in which he detailed how the family had learned to read Rick’s smile to determine what he wanted or needed – frequently making educated assumptions about his needs.
Now that Rick can talk directly to people through technology, we can all be amazed by what he has done and show our support by telling others about his past struggles and how he overcame them.
