William Sackter was an American man with an intellectual disability whose fame as the subject of two television movies and a feature-length documentary helped change national attitudes on persons with disabilities.
12 Facts About Bill Sackter
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Bill Sackter was born in St Paul, Minnesota in 1913, the son of Sam and Mary Sackter, Russian Jewish immigrants who ran a grocery store.
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When Bill Sackter was 7 years old, his father died from complications of the Spanish Flu.
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Bill Sackter remained there for 44 years, never again seeing his mother or two older sisters, Sarah and Alice.
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Bill Sackter was diagnosed as intellectually disabled, although diagnoses performed decades later would prove his intelligence was near normal.
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Bill Sackter was never taught to read or write or even how to use a telephone.
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In 1964, when new light was being shed on the treatment of the mentally ill and disabled, Bill Sackter was moved to a halfway house and worked odd jobs to support himself.
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Bill Sackter eventually became a handyman at the Minikahda Club, where filmmaker Barry Morrow and his wife, Bev, befriended him.
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Morrow began slowly to make life a bit more comfortable for Bill Sackter, getting him new dentures and becoming his friend.
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Morrow became his guardian, and when he took a post at the University of Iowa, Sackter followed him to Iowa City, and became the sole proprietor of Wild Bill's Coffee Shop on the campus, in which he excelled.
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Bill Sackter was named Handicapped Iowan of the Year in 1976, attending a ceremony in Washington, DC President Jimmy Carter gave him special recognition in 1979.
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The documentary shows how Bill Sackter was allowed to develop as an individual with help from many others, and become an important member of the Iowa City community as proprietor of Wild Bill's Coffee Shop.