[Vnbiz] Stephen Zardis; Vietnam vet was key activist on Agent Orange

[Phan, Tai]

Stephen Zardis; Vietnam vet was key activist on Agent Orange
By Tom Long, Globe Correspondent  |  June 5, 2007

Stephen J. Zardis was a veteran of the Vietnam War who had multiple sclerosis, presumably caused by exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange. A quadriplegic and legally blind, he was an artist, activist, and philanthropist who lived in the Brockton Veterans Affairs Hospital for the last seven years of his life.

 He was also a very happy man.

"He was the happiest man I ever met; you'd never know he was even sick," said Sister Mary Black of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Mr. Zardis died of respiratory failure Thursday in the Brockton VA Hospital. He was 59.

In 2003, Mr. Zardis donated $1 million to his alma mater, Cathedral High School in the South End. "I've learned -- unfortunately, through my own medical history -- that I can't take it with me," Mr. Zardis said in a story published in the Globe in 2003. "So I wanted to do something with it, and something that would have a meaning and a purpose. And one day I was just lying here before getting up, and it was quiet, and I was thinking, and I just thought: 'Why not give it to the high school? They can certainly utilize it, and it would be for the betterment of many people.' "

Sister Mary, who is also director of donor relations at Cathedral High, visited him regularly. "He had a beautiful smile and a wonderful sense of humor," she said.

Mr. Zardis enjoyed painting. "Mostly primitives, as you might imagine," said Sister Mary. "I'm not sure how he held the brush"

Born in Malden, he graduated from Cathedral High School in 1965 and attended Boston College for two years before enlisting in the US Army.

He served in the Army in 1968 and 1969 as a forward observer near Cambodia in a border region saturated with Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used to strip the Viet Cong of cover.

He was honorably discharged and returned home in seemingly good health until he was diagnosed with "atypical multiple sclerosis" several years later.

Mr. Zardis became aware from other Vietnam veterans of strange and rare problems affecting their health. After some research, he became convinced that his health problems and those of his fellow Vietnam vets were caused by exposure to Agent Orange.

As his health deteriorated and he was confined to a wheelchair, he had a specially equipped home built in Marblehead in the 1970s. He was forced to give it up in 1999 after a doctor told him he was no longer capable of living alone.

He became director of the Massachusetts chapter of Agent Orange Victims International and worked to spread the word of the origin of the veterans' health problems.

He was lead plaintiff in the Agent Orange class action lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Boston in 1979.

Though the manufacturers of Agent Orange denied its ill effects for years, Mr. Zardis and a group of fellow veterans won a settlement in 1984.

His health continued to deteriorate, and he moved to the Veterans Affairs Hospital seven years ago. He slipped into a coma last summer, but regained consciousness after several days.

"He was like a cat; he had nine lives," said Sister Mary. "But he was never bitter. He had the most wonderful sense of humor and the greatest laugh."

Despite his trials, Mr. Zardis loved life. "Even now it's a good life," he said in 2003. "The doctors and nurses have saved my life more times than I have fingers on my hand."

"I joked that one day a nurse or doctor is going to come up to me and say: 'I finished high school with your help, and I went on to medical school or nursing school, and here I am.' And it's going to happen. It's not going to happen to me specifically, but it's going to happen."

Mr. Zardis leaves no immediate survivors.

A funeral Mass will be said at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow in St. Joseph Church in Malden. Burial is private.

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