SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

Joe Kelsey, Curtis Gould, and Richard Roberts were recently reunited with Vince O’Connell, left, the man who got out them out of the confines of Fernald School.

THE BOSTON GLOBE/FILE 1962

Waltham’s sprawling Walter E. Fernald State School typified all that was wrong with the way people with disabilities were treated.

SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

The men grew up in an era when disabled children were shut away, written off by doctors, separated from families overwhelmed by their needs.

SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

Vince O’Connell talked to Roberts, who was born blind and was sent to the Fernald in the 1940s. O’Connell, who worked at the Fernald, said, ‘‘Theirs was a pretty stark existence.’’

THE BOSTON GLOBE/FILE 1964

In the 1960s, the miseries at the Fernald were uncovered.

THE BOSTON GLOBE/FILE 1962

A legislative panel said conditions there and at other state institutions belonged ‘‘to the Dark Ages.’’

THE BOSTON GLOBE/FILE 1964

The facilities, including a shower room, were stark.

FILE 1966

Understaffed and underfunded, it could be squalid and cruel.

SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

O'Connell, who worked summers at the Fernald, knew they could thrive outside. He helped move several men from the blind unit to their own apartment on the campus. This upended the universe at the Fernald.