Professor Wolf Wolfensberger: 1934 – 2011

I recently heard the sad news that Professor Wolf Wolfensberger passed away on 27th February 2011.

Those of you old enough to remember will know that Prof. Wolfensberger is widely credited as being the 'father' of modern advocacy as well as a tireless campaigner, researcher, teacher and writer. It was his vision, back in 1969, of a new model of 'Citizen Advocacy' that eventually made its way to the UK and sowed the seeds of advocacy as we now know it. His theories of 'normalisation', 'social role valorisation' and his work on evaluation systems such as PASS and PASSING influenced a generation of advocates, support staff and academics including myself.

Wolf was always a controversial figure and never minced his words. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a CAIT conference many moons ago and was impressed by both his logic and delivery. I couldn't pretend that I agreed with every word he said or wrote, but he was a huge influence on my life and will continue to be so. I'm sure you will join with me in mourning his passing.