Father’s Honor a Gift of Love From His Son : Family: Bernard Harvey, who will receive the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.’s personal achievement award, was nominated by his 16-year-old son Neal.

LOS ALAMITOS —  When he turned 12, Neal Harvey started taking care of his father. He would wake up at 5, get his father out of bed, help him dress and then fix his breakfast.

Neal, now 16, is still handling that daily routine.

But that wasn’t enough. The 6-foot-5 10th-grader at Los Alamitos High School wanted to do something more.

So Neal nominated his father, Bernard Harvey, who suffers from muscular dystrophy and has been confined to a wheelchair since 1985, for one of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.’s highest honors--the personal achievement award.

Neal thought his father, a math professor at Cal State Long Beach and a member of the MDA national task force, was an excellent choice for the award.

The MDA agreed.

In May, the group’s Tri-County chapter picked Bernard Harvey from among 10 nominees from Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties as this year’s award winner.

“I thought it was a pretty neat thing to do,” said Neal about nominating his father. “I got the opportunity when we received the nomination form in the mail. So I just went ahead and did it.”

The award will be presented next month, said Lori Harmon, patient services coordinator of the MDA Tri-County chapter, which serves more than 1,300 people with the disease.

Harmon said the association was impressed that a teen-ager would nominate his father.

“It was very unusual,” Harmon said. “But I understand how close their relationship is. Bernie relies on Neal to some degree because of his condition and that probably brings them closer.” Bernard Harvey and his wife, Michele, have two other sons--Andrew, 21, who is in the Army, and Charles, 19, a Cypress College student.

But Bernard Harvey said it is his son Neal who has helped him the most in coping with the disease.

Neal said it doesn’t bother him that he has to wake up early each morning to care for his father.

“He has certain needs. If I don’t do it, who is going to do it?” he said.

In his letter to the MDA, Neal said his father was at one time manager of his hockey team and kept score at his soccer and Little League games. He said the family took trips together and “never let muscular dystrophy dictate what we could do as a family.”

“My friends have asked me what it is like to have a dad who is confined to a wheelchair,” Neal wrote. “I don’t remember my dad not being in a wheelchair. . . . I’ve never been embarrassed about my dad’s disability.”

Bernard Harvey, who was born in Canada and diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was 18, said he and his son have a good relationship.

“After he was born, I took a sabbatical from work. I fed him, changed his diapers . . . all the good stuff. So we bonded pretty good,” he said.

“I am grateful for what Neal is doing for me. He is very strong.”

Bernard Harvey, who earned a doctorate in mathematics from UC Irvine in 1969, has been teaching math at Cal State Long Beach for the past 28 years.

“I work full time, I have a family, I’m a respected member of the society,” he said.

He said that society’s perception of the disabled person has changed over the years.

There is still bias against disabled people in the workplace, he said, although not as blatant as in the past. Better transportation and easier access to buildings and public facilities are also needed, he added.

“I’m disabled, not handicapped,” he said.

Added Neal: “My dad has muscular dystrophy, but muscular dystrophy doesn’t have my dad.”