Shining Star of Perseverance - Assurant Employee Benefits
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WillReturn Council® | Steve Palermo, Honorary Chairman |
Steve Palermo
Former American League umpire Steve Palermo was born October 9, 1949 in Worcester, Massachusetts. After working in the New York-Penn, Carolina, Eastern and American Association Leagues and winter baseball in the Florida Instructional, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican Leagues, Steve joined the American League umpiring staff in 1977. He attended the Umpire Development Program and studied education at Norwich University, Leicester Junior College and Worcester State College.
Steve worked the 1983 World Series, four American League Championship Series and the 1986 All-Star Game. He was also assigned to the one-game playoff between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox to determine the 1978 Eastern Divisional winner -- a game he cites as "the biggest game of my career." In 1991, the Sporting News ranked Steve number one among American League umpires in overall performance.
On July 7, 1991, Steve and several friends were dining in Dallas after a Texas Rangers game when they were alerted that two waitresses were being mugged in the parking lot. In an attempt to apprehend the assailants, Steve suffered a bullet wound to his spinal cord, resulting in instant paralysis to the lower extremities. Doctors told Steve and his wife that he would probably never walk again. Yet through rehabilitation and determination, he is walking with the use of one small leg brace and a cane.
In 2004, Steve and his wife Debbie established the Steve Palermo Endowment for Spinal Cord Injury Research, Education and Clinical Affairs. They partner with the Kansas University Endowment Association, the University of Kansas Hospital and the University of Kansas School of Medicine in raising funds to create one of the top facilities for paralysis research in the nation. An Assurant Employee Benefits disability claimant, Steve also serves as honorary chairman of the WillReturn Council® of Assurant Employee Benefits, formed to recognize the efforts of disability claimants, their employers and health care providers in returning to productive lives.
