Robert Sampson, 81; airline executive served on disabilities panel

Robert Sampson, 81, a former vice president of United Airlines who served on the President’s Commission on Employment of the Handicapped under five presidents, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at this home in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Sampson, who appeared on many Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethons, was born in Evanston, Ill. He had muscular dystrophy from age 5.

After graduating from Loyola University and DePaul University Law School, he worked several years for the city of Chicago’s legal department before joining United. There, he rose to vice president of facilities and worked as a special assistant to the company’s chairman.

He pushed United and the rest of the airline industry to devise better ways to serve disabled passengers and won an FAA Distinguished Service Award for those efforts.

Sampson was appointed to the commission on employing the disabled by President Kennedy in the early 1960s and served under four subsequent presidents.

In 1974, he joined the board of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.