Generous Vision– 90 and legally blind Al keeps a busy schedule of volunteering. Sometimes a hero has to dive into a lake to save a child. Sometimes he just has to tutor after school. Al ABBOTT is the latter hero, one who has volunteered for more than 40 years to improve the lives of children, seniors, the poor, refugees and victims of natural disasters. He has done so with equal measures of bravery and good humor, prompting Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez to declare March 20, Abbott’s 90th birthday, as "Al Abbott Day."

Abbott celebrated this milestone at La Vida Llena Retirement Community Center surrounded by friends and well-wishers at a party. Al is legally blind, so his good friend Ollie Mae Hopper reads to him and drives him to appointments. Al’s optimism led Hopper to nominate him for the Hero Wall at Coronado Shopping Center. The Wall is part of the national HEROICS program (Helping Everyone Reach Out In Community Service).

Al Abbott began volunteering in the 1960s, shortly after he retired from the U. S. Army. He immigrated at age 9 with his parents to the United States from a tiny southern Italian town called Castelmezzano. His given name was Achille Alfredo Abbate, but he changed it when he enlisted in the Army in 1930 because nobody could pronounce it. He attained the rank of LTC.

During retirement he went to college to complete course work to teach history, Spanish and English. In 1972 he established an all-volunteer summer tutoring center at Collet Park Elementary, and went on to serve on the volunteer board of Albuquerque Public Schools to promote additional tutoring centers citywide. He served on the Crime Victims Assistance Organization and the Friendship Force, a cultural exchange organization. He was president of the United Nations Association of Albuquerque and vice president of the allvolunteer Albuquerque Council for International Visitors, which promotes American democracy.

And apparently, through the years, he has become the unofficial "speakers bureau for life" for Philosophers Unlimited. Abbott also has been active with a Life Long Learning Program, taught English to refugees from Central America through a church program, raised money for victims of natural disasters in Mexico and Italy, and raised money for a library in the Black Studies Center at the University of New Mexico. Friend Hopper says that what makes him a hero is that he has done notable undertakings while being legally blind.