By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
NILES -- Jeff Fortner likes to joke that he's a walking poster for the Equal Opportunity Commission.
Physically disabled when his left foot was amputated about a year ago, the Mineral Ridge man was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
When the foot injury made it impossible for him to continue his career in restaurant management, Fortner went back to school in a wheelchair and graduated with a bachelor's degree.
Now, at 48, he's forging a new career as human resource manager at Home Depot in Niles.
"Too many people I meet tell me they have so many problems that they just can't go on," Fortner said with a dismissive shake of the head. "I say: Tell me another story."
The Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission is so impressed with Fortner's success that its public information department is making plans to feature him in an issue of the state agency's monthly publication.
Upbeat attitude
What singles him out is his upbeat, positive attitude, said Lore DeNunzio-Kurimski, Fortner's rehabilitation counselor at the commission's Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation office in Warren.
"He wasn't going to let any obstacle stand in his way, and he was always so motivated, so dedicated to what he was doing," she said. "I was thrilled that he got the job at Home Depot. It couldn't have happened to a better person."
Fortner, a Vietnam veteran, grew up in the state of Oregon where he earned an associate's degree in culinary arts. When he joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War, his credentials as a chef helped him land a position as a cook.
From there he began a career in restaurant management. His position with the Mr. Steak chain brought him to the Mahoning Valley, and his career also included stints with Long John Silver's, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Old Country Buffet.
He first learned he had MS in 1993. He and his doctor agreed that the best response was to ignore the symptoms until they became disruptive to his life. When that happened several years later he began taking medication, and so far he has been able to live with the speech problems, numbness and other symptoms characteristic of the disease.
Accident
Fortner said he was tearing out an old porch at his Mineral Ridge home in April 1998 when the freak accident happened that would change his life. The floor collapsed and he fell, causing serious damage to his left foot and ankle.
Fortner knew almost immediately after the injury that his longtime career in restaurant management would be too difficult because it required spending long hours on his feet. Searching for career options on the Internet, he learned about the Ohio BVR's free services and made an appointment.
Within a few months he enrolled at Youngstown State University, where counselors helped him design an individual curriculum that would allow him to use most of his associate degree credits, reducing the time it would take to complete a bachelor's degree in human resource management.
Campus escorts
He went to class in a wheelchair, but Fortner said it was easier than he expected because the university provided escorts to help him from the moment he arrived on campus.
"For two years those guys were phenomenal," he said. "They'd meet me in the parking lot, get me to class, get me back to my car, help me with my wheelchair. To me, they're YSU's unsung heroes."
A series of surgeries followed over a period of three years, always carefully scheduled during summer and holiday breaks so Fortner could recuperate in time to get back to school.
Fortner admits he was sometimes discouraged when the surgeries failed. Each time he was hopeful, but he was never able to walk without pain.
Tough times
It was a difficult period financially for Fortner, his wife, Denise, and their three daughters.
Mrs. Fortner worked two jobs, he received some disability pay from his previous employer and Social Security disability pay.
Still, the income was far less than what the family had been used to living on, and he was determined to find a position that would allow them to maintain their standard of living.
"It strained our marriage at times, but we never separated, we never broke up. We knew we'd get through it somehow," he said.
Gets prosthesis
Still in a wheelchair, Fortner finished his course work and did an internship last fall at a U.S. government archive facility in Pennsylvania.
Finally, in October 2001, he and his doctors agreed it would be best to amputate his foot and fit him with a prosthesis. He had the final operation in November.
The foot is a high-tech device equipped with an air shock absorber which helps him to have a normal and comfortable gait, though he still has to use a wheelchair sometimes. Fortner said therapists have told him it will likely take two years for him to feel comfortable with the prosthesis.
He was still recovering from the amputation and was still in a wheelchair when he began interviewing for the Home Depot position.
Home Depot
He put on the home improvement chain's trademark orange apron for the first time in July, and he's been working six-day weeks and 10-hour-to-12-hour days ever since. After years of working with customers in the restaurant industry, he said, he now considers the store's 147 employees his customers.
Fortner also is working on a master's degree in business administration at YSU.
Marirae Frankenfield, a public information spokeswoman for the Rehabilitation Services Commission in Columbus, said the state-funded agency wants to use Fortner's story to get the word out about the services it offers.
The commission's BVR offices provide free vocational rehabilitation counseling to Ohioans who have a physical or mental impairment that is causing them trouble in finding or keeping a job. For more information, call the Warren office at (330) 373-1937 or the Youngstown office at (330) 797-9980.
vinarsky@vindy.com