RSD Names Winners

From: Rochester School for the Deaf - Oct 18, 2006

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Oct. 18-- The Rochester School for the Deaf has named Dr. Gerard Walter and Dr. Carol Padden as recipients of its coveted Founder's awards.

The Perkins Founder's Award honors an individual who has provided outstanding service to the school as a benefactor, volunteer, member of the board or community leader, and who has helped continue the work originally started by the Perkins family.  

This year's recipient, Dr. Gerard Walter, of Caledonia, has been an RSD board member since 1992. During that time he has served as chair of the long range planning and the nominating committees, and board president from (1996-1998). Currently he serves on the personnel, long-range planning, and outreach center committees, and is a member of the board’s executive committee. Walter was responsible for co-coordinating the development of a white paper that defined the strategic direction of the school for the next 10 years.

Walter recently retired from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he most recently served as senior analyst for its Division of Government and Administrative Affairs. He was responsible for conducting institutional research that was critical to the institute's planning and instruction delivery. Walter has held a variety of research/planning/analytical positions within NTID since 1968 that have all played an integral role in student assessment, enrollment and outcomes. Walter has continually demonstrated his commitment to improving opportunities for deaf people through ongoing involvement with a wide variety of organizations like Center for Communication Research, St. Mary's School for the Deaf, U.S. Office of Education, and the Department of Education.  In addition, he served as editor of the Journal of American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association from 1991-1998. During his career at NTID, Walter published more than 40 journal articles and book chapters, and co-edited two books on the education of people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Walter earned his Ed.D. in Special Education/Education Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, where he also earned his M.Ed. in Special Education and Rehabilitation. His bachelor’s degree is in Experimental Psychology form Saint Vincent College in Latobe, Pa.

Walter is also the cooper at the Genesee Country Village and Museum and a member of the museum's interpretive staff.  He and his wife, Dianne, have been volunteers at the museum since 1991.

Dr. Carol Padden, of San Diego, Calif., is being honored with the Lyon Founder’s Award for her exceptional professional contributions toward educating deaf people, as typified by Edmund Lyon during the early years of RSD. Padden is professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego, where she has been teaching since 1983. She received her bachelor of science degree from Georgetown University in 1978, and her Ph.D. from UCSD in 1983. Her dissertation on American Sign Language morphology and syntax was later published in the Garland Press Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics Series (1988). She has authored or co-authored more than 50 research articles in areas ranging from sign language structure to reading in young deaf children and the culture and community of deaf people in the United States. With her husband and co-author, Tom Humphries, she has written two ASL textbooks, and two books about deaf culture. Padden has served on the board of directors of the Deaf Community Services of San Diego for eight years. She also served on the board of trustees at Gallaudet University for 14 years, including as vice-chair.

Founded in 1876, Rochester School for the Deaf provides quality education to deaf students throughout central and western New York.

###