Ready for your interview? I'd like to show you something. Know who this is? -Princess Di?
- That's right. You met her? Yes, this was in England. You went to England? Wow. She could sign. BSL. B-S-L. They fingerspell differently than we do. She could sign... okay. That's good. You're a big part of deaf history. It's an honor to be able to interview
Gallaudet's first deaf president. - May I ask some questions?
- Sure, I'd be happy to. Can tell me about your upbringing, your background and how it contributed to your success today? So... I.... I assume you want the short answer. Because it's hard to describe my background succintly. But I grew up hearing. I never met a deaf person. I grew up hearing and I didn't know deaf people or sign. Or anything about deafness. I didn't know. Then, when I was 21, I was in a motorcycle accident. And I woke up in the hospital deaf. So my life has changed a lot. But my values didn't change. My family's support didn't change. My friends. The people I love didn't change. So I think, growing up, the most important thing was my family, my friends. Wow. That was a big change overnight. When you became deaf, how did you feel? Compared to now? Honestly... I didn't expect to stay deaf. Because I was in the Navy and... the doctors didn't know anything about deafness. They didn't know anything about it and
I thought that was trauma from the accident. And the swelling inside my head... and things like that. Eventually, I thought the deafness would go away. They told me again and again that it was temporary. So I didn't adapt to being deaf because I didn't expect to stay deaf for a long time. You have a famous quote. "Deaf people can do anything but hear." How did that quote become so famous? I don't know how it became so famous. But I can explain how it happened. The first time... I became president on a Sunday. March 13th, 1988. That was a great night, when the Board appointed me as President. And on Monday morning, I had a press conference at Gallaudet. There were hundreds of people in the room. It was packed. I stood at the podium with a bunch of microphones and TV cameras in my face. And they asked me really easy questions. Really easy. All of the press people were supportive of DPN. So it was all very positive. When it was almost over, one guy asked me, "OK. All of this is good, but even if deaf people have a college education, what can they do? What can they do with a college education?" That was really offensive. Really. I said, "Where have you been all week?Deaf people can do anything except hear." And... the room burst into applause. That was before the handwave, so it was clapping hands. So... I think that was a perfect shot. Because I believed it. Do you believe it? Deaf people believed it, but no one ever said it before. That's true. That was a great quote. What characteristics do you look for in a person? What kind? - For other people?
- Yes, other people. The most important would be honesty. Honesty. I want people to be honest.
And when someone tells me something, I believe it. If I find out later that it was wrong, whooo.... That hurts me.
I want people to be 100% honest. Leadership's such a big part of life. What is your definition, your view of leadership? To be a leader, you have to believe something. Really believe in something. If you believe in something strongly enough, then you can convince other people to believe it too. When they believe it too, they will follow you. Or go together with you. I think a leader must believe in something. And value something, then help work to convince other people to believe it too. Can you give me a situation in where you believed in something enough? I can use "Deaf people can do anything except hear." To use that quote. It used to be that deaf people were not... assertive about going out in public, not... showing off, not being themselves. Sometimes they were quiet in public. Deaf people in groups... This was a long time ago. The 1960s, 1970s. Deaf people stayed within themselves. But people outside the community didn't really know us. Now, we're a proud community. We're a very proud community. People in the community want to say "I'm deaf. I'm a deaf person." I think many people believe that, follow that. I'm a senior in high school, ready to graduate and to go out in the world.
Can you look back to when you were a senior in high school, going out in the world What was the world like for you? How did you think? I'm willing to bet that you were a much better high school student than I was back then. I wasn't a very good student in high school. I was the third of four children in my family. I had two older sisters and a younger brother. My two sisters were smart, high achieving students, straight As. So all through school, teachers compared me with my sisters. I really... I was a rebel. So I didn't study. I didn't work hard in school. I did everything wrong. I was really not a good student. I applied to college after college. And they read my application and they looked at my grades... Excuse me. I don't think so. I was not very good. Then I joined the Navy. And then I became deaf. And then I realized education was very important. So I tell high school juniors and seniors: don't stop education. Keep going on to college or community college or vocational school or something. But when you graduate from high school, keep going. More education, more and more education. How did you go from a poor student to someone who values education? I realized... When I became deaf, I realized the road towards achieving a better way of attainment was a good education. Then people couldn't take that away from me. So, education, degrees, all of those things... That was mine. So I knew education would help me get ahead. There are so many issues in the world. If you could pick one thing you could change, what would it be? -Do you mean that I could change the world?
- Yes. -Anything?
- Anything. OK. Peace. No war. No terrorism. I'm a vet, you know. So I'm still active on veterans' issues. And I see many people come back from Iraq, Afghanistan with really serious injuries, head injuries. PSD. Deafness, amputation, all those things. For what? Stop war. Stop all of the crazy things happening around the world. But really, that might never happen... But you just gave me an opportunity to ask for one thing. And that's what I would do, stop war. You've been through the Navy and various experiences. When you think about your life, what do you appreciate most? Of my whole life, I think probably family. My family growing up, that was a wonderful experience. My brother and sisters were good. My parents, my uncles, aunts, cousins. All my family were good people. Now as an adult, my family has grown. My wife, my children, my grandchildren. So there's something very special about my family. I love my family. My wife and I, over the past summer, took our two grand children, aged 17 and 16, to Paris for one week. That was really cool. When I was growing up, I couldn't imagine going outside of the United States. And my grandchildren went to Paris. We had a wonderful time and they will remember that for the rest of their lives. I will pass the values, family values to them. During the summer, when you were with the family, did you do some ultra-marathoning? 100-mile runs? I know you run. How do you persist? Do you need to be physically strong? Mentally strong? What's your advice? I love running. I love running long distances. But now, this summer, I became 70. So it happened that I became 70 on a Sunday. And it happened that I became 70 at the very day that the San Francisco Marathon happened. My family and friends went to San Francisco and ran the San Francisco Half-Marathon. It was a really fun celebration of my birthday to run in a marathon in San Francisco, which is a beautiful city. Running across the Golden Gate Bridge was... Beautiful. And on my birthday! When I ran, I was telling everyone, "Tell me happy birthday. Tell me happy birthday." That was fun. But I also run longer, like 100 miles. I've finished 38 100-mile races all over the country. Vermont, California, Colorado, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio. And so forth. I really enjoy that. How did you get into running? I love athletics. But I'm not very skilled. I can't hit a curveball in baseball. I can't throw a jump shot in basketball. I can't catch a pass in football. But I can run. I definitely focus on what I can do. Going back to the deaf community, what are your passions? For future deaf generations, what would you like to see happen? I think technology has changed the world for deaf people. Technology really helps level the playing field for deaf people. Now, people who are deaf can use different ways to communicate, more so than in the past. When I was growing up, there wasn't any VRS, TRS, captioning... No interpreters. I went to graduate school and there was no such thing as interpreters. People would volunteer to interpret sometimes, but there was no such thing as certification or training. There were no interpreters. Now, all of those things are available. My recommendation to deaf people is to take advantage of all those things, to take advantage of technology, take advantage of access. There are a lot of opportunities for access. Here in Washington, DC there's a movie theater that captions every showing of every movie. You must wear special glasses. But still, everything. 3D plus captions. It's really... amazing. Take advantage of that and see all of the new movies. Watching TV with captions. Going to interpreted plays, the opera with captions. Take advantage! Captioning, access to communication... What are some of the imporant things you feel our community should attain? The idea of pride in oneself. Be proud. Be a deaf individual. I'm deaf, so what? Deaf. That's part of me. Don't try to fix me. I don't wnat to be fixed. I'm very happy as a deaf individual. And I don't want someone telling me how to become hearing again. That train has left the station. A long time ago. People who grow up deaf, be proud. Be a deaf person. In your daily life, can you think of one special adage that you live by everyday? One quote I live by everyday? Maybe... this will sound trite... But... Work hard. Work hard. No matter what you do. Like when I talk about running, you have to work hard to run successfully. When I talk about communication, you must work hard to communicate. When you talk in public, you must work hard to prepare for that. Anything you do, you have to work hard. Don't let life go by. Wake up everyday with goals and work, work towards successful goals. In all of your success and your work, is there one person who has inspired you? Honestly, again, you would expect this to happen but I grew up with a wonderful dad. My father is the most important person in my life. He went on to be active in many, many different things. He didn't have any education. None. He had to drop out of school before the sixth grade. He went to work. That was a long time ago. A long time ago. But he had to work to support his family. He had no formal education but he knew how important education was. So growing up, my family expected you to go to college. Even if he never went to high school. Never finished middle school. He expected you to go to college. He expected us to work hard. He expected
us to do that. He was the most honest man I ever knew. He was actively involved in his church and people really respected him. Even
the PhDs, the MDs, the dentists, the highly educated people with good jobs and large incomes. They had a lot of respect for my father because they knew he was the real deal. Summing up your life, what do you want people to remember about you? I hope that people will remember me as a honest person too. Someone who believed in things and did everything that he could to support and to follow through on the things that he believed in. I... myself... sometimes, my behavior, my... communication for example, is different than other people in the deaf community. But that's me. That's how I communicate. I must be myself so I hope people would respect me for always being myself. What was the greatest moment of your life? - One single moment?
- You can have more than one if you want. I have to have more... My professional moment, my personal moment... I have two children. When my two children were born... wow. There's nothing... nothing like when your wife goes into labor and all of a sudden, you have a baby son or have a baby daughter. I have two. One boy, one girl. Those are the most wonderful memories I have in my personal life. Professionally, I think that would have to be when I became President. I really... I didn't expect to become President because after... during DPN week, I stood up and supported the students. I knew when I publicly supported the students I wouldn't have any chance at possibly being President. None. So when they appointed me, that night, Sunday night. Monday morning. That week. Wow. That was really moving. I thought that was a wonderful opportunity and I think I did a pretty good job. You just gave us two great moments. Now, what are you proudest about? What's your legacy? My legacy. I think... when I became President I tried really hard to pull together different kinds of deaf people. I wanted people, I wanted the deaf community to be defined broadly. Not a narrow definition. Just one kind of deaf person. There are many different ways to be deaf in the world. I want to respect differences. Hard of hearing, people who use cued speech, people who sign ASL. People who sign more like English, people who are oral, if they decide they want to be oral, I repsect them. I want all deaf people to respect all other deaf people. Thank you for elaborating. Is there anything you want to add? Anything you'd like for people to know? I don't think I want to add anything. Thank you very much. I really enjoyed this conversation with you and I have to tell you, it's very hard for me to believe that you're a senior in high school. You're very, very mature and adult for a high school senior. You will go far. Thank you for your time, for coming out for this interview.
I really appreciate it. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you for sitting for this interview. I hope to go to Gallaudet or RIT. I think they're both great schools. Either one would be fine. That's true. Do you know what you want to majro in? For now, I'm interested in radiology. We'll see if I follow through. Good for you. Good for you.
