The Edouard Foundation recently acknowledged the exemplary life of Morton Freilicher by donating $5,000 in honor of his 80th birthday to support the activities of Post-Polio Health International.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Freilicher received his law degree from Columbia Law School as a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar eight years after he contracted polio at age 17, which left him with total paralysis in his right arm and partial paralysis in his left arm, neck and diaphragm.
During his professional career, specializing in trusts and estates, he was a partner in the New York-based law firm of Phillips Nizer LLP. He authored a book on estate planning and taught as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School.
After retirement, Freilicher donated his services to the work of the Edouard Foundation, which supports disaster relief, medical care and research and aid to the impoverished throughout the world.
Due to the effects of polio, he has used nighttime ventilation for more than 25 years. He says he credits his continuing survival to “staying active, exercising my usable muscles, benefiting from the nighttime ventilator, a wonderfully loyal wife and plain old-fashioned good luck!”