{"id":213845,"date":"2019-11-17T14:24:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T20:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=213845"},"modified":"2019-11-17T17:52:44","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T23:52:44","slug":"man-disabilities-50-years-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/man-disabilities-50-years-working\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Jack of all trades’: Man with disabilities celebrates 50 years working at one company"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Willie Deas has lived his entire life in Jacksonville, Florida — but he’s not your average resident. Born with an intellectual disability, he spent most of his childhood in an institution<\/a>. The Florida Farm Colony for the Epileptic and Feeble Minded, then re-named Sunland Training Center, was a place to send people like Deas to make them go away. At the age of 18, he couldn’t even count to 10, or read. But that didn’t mean his life was going to be anything less than extraordinary.<\/p>\n

The Martin Coffee Company was founded in 1957 by Fred Martin, and he needed someone to work part-time as a janitor. One of Martin’s employees lived next door to Deas, and recommended him; he explained that though Deas had intellectual disabilities, he thought he could make a good employee. 50 years later, that prediction has proved itself to be very true.<\/p>\n

As Jacksonville.com explained<\/a>, Deas turned out to be a reliable employee who also turned out to be a man of many talents. He was able to, for example, listen to numerous motors running on the processing line and know just by sound when one might be broken.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a jack of all trades,\u201d Ben Johnson, the current president and grandson of founder Fred Martin, said to Jacksonville.com. \u201cHe\u2019ll see something that needs to be done and before I even mention it, he\u2019ll have it done. I\u2019ll be in my office and I\u2019ll see him out mowing the lawn. He\u2019ll say, \u2018I just wanted to get it done before it starts raining.\u2019 He\u2019s brilliant. Once he\u2019s doing something, he\u2019s like a robot.\u201d Now, he’s able to many things, anything from operating machinery to making awesome cups of coffee, and he says he loves his job too much to ever retire.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Man with Down syndrome inspires with long-running <\/em>career<\/em>: \u2018People with disabilities can be independent\u2019<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

For Johnson, Deas is more than just an employee, too. \u201cHe\u2019s been here five years longer than I\u2019ve been alive,\u201d Johnson explained. \u201cI\u2019m 45 and he\u2019s known me since I was born. He\u2019s like family.\u201d<\/p>\n

To celebrate his 50th anniversary at the coffee plant, as well as his 68th birthday, Deas’ fellow employees had a surprise planned for him<\/a>. Deas reported to work as usual, only to find a party planned for him, with his family and friends there. Johnson presented him with a plaque, and then he was given numerous gifts, including a 50-inch flat screen TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love him to death. To see the accomplishments that he has made in his years due to a slight handicap,\u201d Josephine Davis, one of his six sisters, told WJXT. \u201cHe did not let it stop him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Willie Deas has lived his entire life in Jacksonville, Florida — but he’s not your average resident. Born with an intellectual disability, he spent most of his childhood in an institution. The Florida Farm Colony for the Epileptic and Feeble Minded, then re-named Sunland Training Center, was a place to send people like Deas to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":214002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[9455,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n'Jack of all trades': Man with disabilities celebrates 50 years working at one company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Florida coffee company is celebrating an employee with developmental disabilities who has been working there for fifty years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/man-disabilities-50-years-working\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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