ATTLEBORO - In the 1950s, parents of children with severe mental disabilities were often told to put their children in institutions.

Families were advised that if they kept the children at home, there was no way they could amount to anything more than a burden.

But when Aime and Barbara Turgeon's first child was born with Down syndrome in 1957, they refused to listen.

Instead of following conventional wisdom, they brought home their new son, Paul, nurtured him and reached out to other parents with retarded children.

Eventually, they joined the others to pitch in and create a nursery school, a summer camp, taking many of the initial steps toward providing education and a future to children with intellectual handicaps. The ARC of Northern Bristol County, the successor to the group they helped start, celebrates its 50th anniversary Thursday and continues to provide advocacy and support to the developmentally disabled and their families.

"When Paul was born, our pediatrician told us we should send him away," said Aime Turgeon, a retired engineer. "Of course, there was no way we were going to do that. Our obstetrician referred us to another doctor, and he told us to take the baby home and love him."

The new parents did just that.

Supported by his parents and younger brother, Michael, Paul not only survived, but thrived as a high school athlete and musician. Later, he became a self-supporting worker and a nationwide ambassador for the mentally disabled.

Paul continued his swimming career until recently, winning an international gold medal against other disabled swimmers in 1983.

Originally expected to live only into his teens, Paul is now 52, shares a supervised apartment in Attleboro and continues to work in a local shop.

More than five decades later, the Turgeons say they made the right decision to keep their firstborn son who - along with many other mentally handicapped youngsters - ended up disproving almost every assumption about their disabilities.

"Back then, I never would have predicted all of the things Paul's been able to accomplish," his father said.

After attending one of the city's first public school classes for the mentally handicapped at the Willett School, Paul eventually went on to attend a program at Coelho Middle School.

Later, after some initial reluctance by the school department, he was admitted to Attleboro High School. In high school Paul, who had long exhibited a talent for swimming, was taken under wing by the late Bill Dentch, coach of the Attleboro High swimming team.

Paul was accepted as a member of the varsity and went on to earn a varsity letter and jacket alongside his non-handicapped peers.

Paul also exercised his musical talent as a baritone horn player in the high school marching band, and learned the basics of working in a restaurant through the school's culinary arts program.

He learned his lessons well enough to get a job at Fuller Memorial Hospital, which he kept for 20 years.

He's also gone on to participate in skiing, golf and parasailing.

Progress didn't come cheaply.

"When we were starting out, there were no programs out there for these kids," Turgeon said.

After Paul was born, the Turgeon's answered an ad in the newspaper placed by parents of other handicapped children who wanted education and recreation for their youngsters.

The small group of parents, which would later morph into the local ARC of Northern Bristol County, set up a nursery school first at the YMCA and later at Murray Universalist Church. A recreation program was set up at Wheaton College in Norton.

Both parents became active in helping to build the ARC, and Barbara Turgeon became an early "bus driver," transporting children to ARC programs.

"I had a little red Ford wagon, and we'd sing everywhere we went," she said.

In the beginning, parents earned money to pay teachers and expenses through donation cans that were placed in factories, offices and stores throughout the Attleboro area. Support also came from the United Way.

Aime Turgeon, who has also served in a variety of capacities with The Workshop, which later became the Attleboro Enterprises employment program for the disabled, and Rhode Island Special Olympics, said it's difficult sometimes to believe how far treatment of children with developmental disabilities has come.

"It's grown by leaps and bounds," he said.