To find the music within

Richard Pimentel has devoted his life to giving speeches and inspiring people.

The Portland State graduate was a leading force in the disability rights movement. He conducted trainings for the U.S. government and Fortune 500 companies on how to develop jobs for persons with disabilities. He has spoken before crowds of 50,000 and given speeches, sometimes with only 25 minutes notice.

But for Pimentel, his upcoming PSU commencement address may be his most challenging speech yet. It is a very serious responsibility and an honor, he said, and on top of that he has only 15 minutes to speak.

“I am a very long-winded speaker,” Pimentel said.

Still, he is looking forward to returning to his hometown and giving back to the school that he said has meant so much to him.

“I am thrilled,” he said. “I don’t know what thrills me more, being able to come back to my alma mater and do this, or sharing this with people who are still there hanging on.”

When Pimentel returns to Portland for the June 14 commencement ceremony, it will be a sort of homecoming.

Pimentel was an on again, off again student at PSU in the late 1960s before he was drafted and sent to Vietnam. It was there that his life was changed forever.

An explosion during the war gave Pimentel hearing loss and tinnitus. When he returned to Portland, he and others were subject to injustices because of their disabilities. This eventually led him on his career in diversity-based disability attitude training.

When back at the University after Vietnam, he bonded with another student, Art Honeyman, an author with cerebral palsy who was equally interested in civil rights for people with disabilities. Honeyman is one of many people Pimentel looks forward to seeing again when he returns next week.

“It was a time of great social change and questioning,” Pimentel said. “I came back with a hearing loss, and [Portland State] just seemed to be swept up in this whole sea of change.”

Pimentel’s story was recounted in a 2007 feature film, The Music Within, starring Ron Livingston as Pimentel and Michael Sheen in a much-lauded performance as Honeyman. The film follows Pimentel’s life, from his childhood, to his time at Portland State, to his leadership role in the 1981 landmark disability attitude training program Tilting at Windmills and his contributions to the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

Much of the film was shot on-location at Portland State–on Pimentel’s insistence.

“That was the Petri dish that my ideas were put in to grow,” he said of PSU. “It just seemed like a natural kind of thing to do.”

A one-off campus screening of The Music Within eventually led Pimentel to be asked to be a commencement speaker this year.

Student body President Rudy Soto–who had never heard of Pimentel until seeing the movie–was a major factor in bringing Pimentel onboard.

Soto was so impressed with Pimentel’s story, he took it upon himself to bring him in as the commencement speaker. After meeting with the Alumni Office and talking to University Relations, Soto and others–including students in the Disability Advocacy Cultural Association–were able to secure his speaking engagement.

“Usually they pick a politician or someone with a recognizable name, and I think this year we have somebody who has actually done something that means a lot,” Soto said.

Pimentel, who is currently developing an employer training program that would support the transition of disabled and wounded veterans into the workforce, does not merely want to tell students at graduation how they should live their lives. He wants to give them empowerment.

He wants to tell graduates that they can find their own inspiration within themselves.

“I’m a huge believer in the title of that movie [The Music Within],” Pimentel said. “Most people go to their graves with their music still inside them. You search so long to find your music.”