Quote:
Originally Posted by nat
Those are amazing. But why, exactly, was Lou Gehrig a member of the New York parole commission? (Or did I misread a caption?)
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When Lou Gehrig retired, he did have many job offers, including one from the Yankees, many very high paying. Gehrig chose the parole commission because he wanted a position where he could make a positive contribution to society and the city, and Lou also had a bit of interest in prison reform, as most inmates were young persons, and implemented correctly, believed that prisoner reform could reshape many of the persons back into contributing members of society. Also, it would be possible to do the job from home, in the event he was not able to get to an office.
Gehrig made many visits to prisons in his role while able to get around, and later was able to to read and dictate reports with the help of Elinor until about a month before he died when his health forced him to retire from the commission. But he was able to perform his duties almost up until his death.