Why did a paratrooper go into social work?
   "I remember a kindergarten mate who had Mongoloid characteristics. He was a genuinely nice, warm person. This was the first instance I can recall of being concerned for someone else's welfare. I know he finished high school and was going to a college prep school. That kid's parents realized he needed to face reality, so they sent him to a public school rather than to a private one."
   Halpin, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Tampa, Inc., has three children of his own. He spends his working day in an effort to bring the more than average help needed to the preschool victims of cerebral palsy who come to the Davis Island treatment center.
   "Cerebral palsy is an all-inclusive disease, requiring social rehabilitation, working with the parents and victims in their homes and in the treatment center, and with nursing services.
    The program is a combination of therapy and public education, Halpin says. A part of his job is keeping the knowledge before the public that the services are available. As with other maladies, there is a great need to get attention for a case early.
   Peter Halpin came to this country with his parents from Ireland when he was 5 years old. His father's livelihood had been destroyed as a result of the Irish fight against the English. The senior Halpin had maintained grazing land for English horses. When the horses stopped coming, the family emigrated to New York. From there they moved to New Haven, Conn., where Peter completed high school.
   He went into the Army, was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, and went overseas during World War II. While in Germany he met a GI from Miami. The two shivered while reading letters that described Florida's tropical weather. When he left the military, Halpin took a job in New Haven with Winchester as a gun inspector. A few months of that was enough.
   He entered the University of Miami, took courses at an accelerated pace, and was graduated with a degree in sociology in 1951. After passing a civil service test he had taken in Miami, Halpin went to work for the Florida State Welfare Department as a social worker, investigating applicants for welfare.
   "Once their eligibility is determined, it becomes the responsibility of the agency to try to get welfare recipients back to work," Halpin believes. While working in Miami he was granted a fellowship to the University of Connecticut Graduate School of Social Work in 1953.
 He came to Tampa in 1954 with the State Welfare Department, Child Welfare Services. In 1955 he was

employed by the Southwest Florida Tuberculosis Hospital as a medical-social worker. In 1956 he was  appointed director of its social services department. He received the Robert Henderson Scholarship to the Yale University School of Alcoholic Studies in 1959.
   In 1963 he was district governor of Florida Federation of Social Workers. He is presently state president of the federation. Halpin also is a past president of the University of Miami Alumni Association.
   Who is benefiting from his work? Halpin Halpin says the children, the parents and the schools all benefit.
   "A great deal of time is saved If the special teachers can enable cerebral palsy victims to compete.
   "An element of success is indicated if you can move a child into a public school system. We try to do this by the time the child is six years old.
   Treatment requires care by more specialists than any other affliction. One of the principal services offered by the center is that it can bring together the necessary specialists. In addition to the physical aspects, the psychological and emotional problems can be worked on at the center. One of the CP center's jobs is to overcome the overprotective attitude of many parents. The emotions involved tend to complicate the job of getting the child to fit with other children.
   "The greatest progress being made right now is in giving hope to the hopeless. Parents sometimes give up, but the staff persists. We exist for people who are real problems, to themselves and to others.
   "In the occupational realm, there ought to be a search for special interests. Jobs should be created to fit the abilities available. This is not an idea I originated," he says.
   Halpin would like to see industry seek out the handicapped who have particular abilities, rather than require social workers to go around hunting the few employers willing to "take a chance" on physically handicapped persons. "The minority need the help so much more desperately. The satisfaction doesn't come as quickly with them."
   What does Halpin like about the job he has now? It is not the even keel job he has had before. He likes the challenge, the frustration, the change involved. He says he works with a dedicated staff. Cerebral Palsy, which will move into its new building Sept. 30, is a United Fund agency.
   "Without that association our activities would not exist," Halpin says.
   Mrs. Halpin is the former Nancy Garrison Powers of West Palm Beach. They have three children, Patrick, 8; Susan, 7: and Kevin, 5, and reside at 6808 N. Tampania Ave. 4
[The Tampa Times, Tampa, FL, 21 Aug 1965, Sat, Page 9]

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