When Robert Stack ’76 was preparing to release his most recent book, he received some unexpected inspiration from an actor who appeared on a show you might have heard of: “Breaking Bad.”
RJ Mitte, who played Walter White Jr. on the hit series, is an actor and producer who has been working since he was a kid. A friend of Stack’s, he also happens to have cerebral palsy, a lifelong disability.
Stack recalls Mitte attending one of his book signings with about 100 people in the audience.
“RJ stood up and talked about how he was exploited as a child and how he was able to deal with it,” Stack said. “He turned to the audience and said, ‘I have a question for all of you: How long will all of you be silent no longer? When will you start speaking up for the rights of those who can’t speak up for themselves?’”
Beyond being a memorable evening, the event shaped how Stack thought about promoting his most recent book, Silent No Longer: Advancing the Fight for Disability Rights, and reaching wider audiences.
The book chronicles Stack's 40-plus-year career as a disability rights advocate, a career that, in a lot of ways, began with his undergraduate experience at the University of Dayton.
Meeting Robert Stack
When you first meet Stack, it feels like you’re reuniting with an old friend, one that reminds you of a cross between Robert Redford and Bryan Cranston (to bring it back to “Breaking Bad”). But despite his tall build and commanding voice, he immediately puts you at ease, a skill that has undoubtedly helped in his line of work.
Stack is the founder and CEO of Community Options, a $500 million nonprofit that provides housing and employment for people with disabilities. His work, which spans 750 homes nationwide, is fueled by a passion for human rights that was nurtured in classrooms and dorms of the University of Dayton.
He is also, it should be said, full of stories. In the span of a single conversation, he moved from Aristotle to the Iowa attorney general; to a Princeton bioethics professor, whose views on disabilities shocked Stack; to a venture capitalist whose advice Stack still carries with him. He quoted philosophers, cited legal cases and rattled off states where his residents live, all with the same ease. There is no separation between the advocate and the person. The passion for his cause is there, always on the surface, available to whoever he happens to be talking to.
This spring, he brought that energy back to UD, speaking to students in two classrooms. But to understand how Stack got there, you have to go back to where it started.
A Philosophy Major Who Asked the Right Questions
Stack was a philosophy major at UD, a choice his parents teased him about. “My parents used to joke with me that philosophers make as much money as poets,” he said with a laugh. But philosophy gave him something that has shaped every decision since – a habit of looking at how systems affect people as a whole and asking what could be changed.
One of his early intellectual confrontations was with Aristotle’s work. Stack told a classroom of UD students, with the kind of disbelief that clearly has not dimmed over decades, that even the most celebrated philosopher in Western history could set a dangerous precedent. “[Aristotle] was the most brilliant philosopher,” Stack said, “and he said the deaf were not educable.”
He let that sit for a moment before connecting it to something larger: when a figure of authority sets a low bar for a group of people, the consequences echo for centuries.
Stack would make it his life’s mission to fight against prejudices people with intellectual and developmental disabilities face, from Aristotle to the systems at play today.
Community Over Institutions
For Stack, the shift from philosophy to practice came down to a single belief: “No one who hasn't committed a crime against society should be incarcerated.” During his recent classroom visits, he spoke at length about the history of state-run institutions, where people with disabilities are often hidden away, abused and forgotten. He views these places not as solutions, but as failures that shouldn’t exist.
“If you are unable or not permitted to leave the house at three in the morning to go buy a burrito, chances are you are either a child or living in an institution,” he said. “In my world, institutions are where people's dignity of choice and freedom go to die.”
This is the philosophy behind Community Options’ model: small, unmarked homes woven into ordinary neighborhoods, where residents are neighbors rather than patients, and where the front door is a home entrance, not that of a facility.
Stack calls this an “invisible program,” built on the idea that people with disabilities should be fully integrated into their neighborhoods and communities, not marked as different. He insists that when you see someone with a disability in your community, you shouldn’t treat them differently but engage with them and invite them into your circle.
It is a vision of community any Flyer would recognize. When asked whether that philosophy aligned with the Marianist way of life, Stack did not hesitate. “It does,” he said. For Stack, the values he learned at UD and the mission he has built his career around are not separate.
Rooted in UD, Marianist in Practice
When Stack decided to launch Community Options, he turned to people he trusted most: his friends from UD. One of his former roommates had become a vice president at the Hershey Company, and Stack called him to explain the plan and his old friend signed on as the first chair of the board of directors. “I had him and some others come on my board who were my friends at the university,” Stack said. “And we've been connected, and it's been very good.”
Those friendships, Stack said, are part of what has sustained his work. “You make a lot of your friends in college. And if you're smart, those college friendships last for decades to come.” The people he stayed close to share a foundation he traces directly to UD and its Marianist values. “Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. I think that was one of the prime values I got from UD.”
What He Wants Students to Take Away
Speaking to Natalie Hudson’s, professor of political science and research professor of law, human rights class, Stack left students with a message that spoke to all majors — the work of disability inclusion belongs to everyone. 
“If I can get you as students to somehow get involved with people with disabilities now,” he said to the class, “maybe when you get older you’ll say, ‘Maybe I can volunteer and do this. Maybe I can make a difference.’”
For students who want to take that step before graduation, Community Options is offering paid, on-site summer internships. Students heading home this summer to Arizona, Iowa, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas or Utah may be eligible to apply, with programs tailored to each student's background and area of study.
But the thing Stack kept coming back to was simpler than an internship. It was about how you move through the world.
“People with disabilities want to be treated just like everybody else. They don't want special treatment. When you become an employer, think about hiring them. If you see them in your community, invite them to be part of your friendship, be part of your circle. That's all I want.”
For a man who has spent more than 40 years refusing to be silent, that is a remarkably modest ask.
Any UD students interested in an internship with Community Options should contact Yongxin Zhou, Community Options director of development, at yongxin.zhou@comop.org.