Fred Bedell grew up in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1940s and ’50s, got married and moved to upstate New York. He became a teacher, guidance counselor, and assistant principal in the White Plains public schools system. During that period, Fred was elected to the post of deputy mayor of the Village of Ossining, New York, and became a principal of an open-education program for learning-disabled students (Board of Cooperative Services, Yorktown, New York).

They then moved to Albany, New York, where he served as a public official in the New York State Division for Youth and the Department of Correctional Services. After serving in those positions for eight years, Fred returned to White Plains as an assistant superintendent and then retired. During his retirement, he was appointed to the position of director of the National Council on Disability in Washington, DC.

Fred earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from New York University and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. He has three children and six grandchildren and lives with Gail, his wife of fifty-six years, in Arizona.