Donald Eugene Anderson, born October 1, 1940, the first child to be pictured on a March of Dimes publicity poster in 1946, giving rise to the popular phrase “poster child,” died at age 73 on February 27, 2014. Mr. Anderson contracted polio in 1943 and was five years old and a resident of Prineville, Oregon, at the time he became the poster child to symbolize the March of Dimes fight against polio. His iconic March of Dimes poster showed two images – the first of him standing in his hospital bed with neck brace and arm splint, and the second after various therapies, striding briskly along, unsupported and radiating confidence. He grew up to work for the U.S. Postal Service for 25 years.
Donald Anderson also posed with great New York Yankees center fielder Joe DiMaggio for a photo in Central Park, New York City, in 1946.