Back in 2003, he told NPR: "I want a life. I just want a life. Like anyone else. Just like your life. Or anyone else's life."
He got that life.
Dupree had a severe neuromuscular disease and was living in Mobile, Ala. He was in a wheelchair and depended on a respirator to breathe. The state paid for nurses to come into his home — even take him to college classes. But that care was about to end the day he turned 21. He faced going to a nursing home, where he feared he would die.
Every state has a program that pays for care for severely disabled children to live at home, but not every state continues that care into adulthood. When Dupree was 19, he started Nick's Crusade — an online campaign to change the rules in Alabama.
Just a few days before his 21st birthday, he won. In 2008, he decided to move to New York City.
"I assisted him moving to New York, which was very, very scary for me," says Dupree's mother, Ruth Belasco. "But, I figured that his joy would outweigh my fear."
In New York, Dupree made friends. He went to museums. He could move just the tip of his thumb and his index finger. And if someone placed his hand on a computer track ball, he could draw. That's how he made online comic books that reflected his quirky humor.