Melvin Heckt did what any father of a child with special needs would do: He fought to get rights and services for his daughter. Then he did the same for other families across the state and the nation.
Heckt's daughter Janice was born with developmental disabilities, and that sent him on a lifelong quest improve the lives of children with disabilities, starting in the 1950s when few services were readily available, said his son, Bill Heckt, of Andover.
Melvin Heckt testified before the Legislature many times to secure funding for vocational training programs and increase staffing at state institutions, such as the Faribault State Hospital where his daughter lived.
Heckt also helped found Camp Friendship, a camp for children with special needs in Annandale, Minn. He served as president of the Arc Minnesota and held several leadership positions for the national organization serving those with disabilities. His advocacy even took him to the White House in the early 1970s when he was named to a presidential committee on the topic.
"It was his calling, for sure," his son said.
Heckt, 95, died Feb. 7 of natural causes at the Glenn Hopkins, an assisted living facility in Hopkins.
Heckt spent more than 60 years as a Twin Cities lawyer and was known for his pioneering work on trusts and estate planning to ensure that children with disabilities were taken care of after their parents were gone, said Richard Luther, a partner at the Minnetonka law firm of Luther & Heckt, where Heckt worked the final 17 years of his career until he retired at age 87.
Heckt began his career at the Minneapolis law firm now known as Bassford Remele, where there is a conference room named for "the man of character" who "had a passion for helping those with special needs," said CEO Mark Whitmore.
Born in 1924 in Dysart, Iowa, Heckt earned a law degree from the University of Iowa. He was nicknamed "the Judge" when playing for the Hawkeye football team as an undergraduate in 1943 because of all the time he spent on the bench, Whitmore said.
"He was very proud of that," Whitmore said. But he was more proud "and passionate about caring for children with disabilities. That drove his interest in the estate planning he did."
Heckt was a member of the 1st Raider Battalion with the U.S. Marines. He fought battles in Guam and Okinawa during World War II and was rewarded with a Bronze Star for "meritorious achievement in connection with operations against the Japanese enemy while serving as a machine gun squad leader," the proclamation reads.
Portions of Heckt's journal recounting battles at Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa, where all but four of the 53 men he fought with were injured or killed, were published in George Feifer's "The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb." The journal was also featured in a History Channel documentary, and Heckt served as president of the U.S. Marine Raider Association.
Heckt was instrumental in brokering a deal in 1964 to buy a resort in Annandale and transform it into a summer camp, said Ed Stracke, Camp Friendship's former CEO.
"He did a lot of the negotiations and legal work," said Stracke, noting that Camp Friendship and three others operated by True Friends serve about 4,000 children a year. He felt "this was something the disabled needed, and it's evolved way beyond expectation."
In addition to his son Bill, and daughter Janice, of Minneapolis, Heckt is survived by three other children, Mary Heckt, of New Hope, Barbara Kenutis, of Eden Prairie, and Thomas Heckt, of New Hope. Services have been held.
Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768
