Ralph H. White was born in Hazlehurst, GA in 1923 and attended the
Georgia School for the Deaf, Cave Spring, GA in 1931. He graduated from
GSD in 1941 and entered Gallaudet College in Washington, DC, now Gallaudet
University, where he earned a BA in Liberal Arts in 1946. He later
attended the University of Texas at Austin, TX and earned a M.A. in Special
Education in 1952, and a M.A. in Educational Administration and Supervision
at the California State University at Northridge, CA. in 1966. Additional
graduate work included studying Linguistics at Gallaudet University, Counseling
and Guidance at the University of Texas at Austin, and Educational
Administration at the University of Oklahoma, OK. In 1995, Gallaudet
University bestowed on Mr. White an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in
recognition of his more than half-century of service to the national deaf
community.
His professional career spanned
more than fifty years, beginning with three years teaching history at the
Georgia School for the Deaf and nineteen years of teaching and counseling at
the Texas School of the Deaf. For a season he as an actor with the
national Theatre of the Deaf. In 1968 he was appointed one of the
statewide consultants for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program with the Texas
Rehabilitation Commission, serving in that capacity for thirteen
years. In 1975 he was appointed Director of the Gulf Coast Regional Day
School Program for the Deaf. After returning to TRC for an
additional two years, he accepted the appointment of Superintendent of the
Oklahoma school for the Deaf in 1981.
Ralph White was active in
numerous disability-related organizations, including serving on the boards of
the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, and the American Deafness
and Rehabilitation Association. He served as president of both the Texas
Association of the Deaf and the National Association of the Deaf. He was
Chairman of the Texas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing for two
terms, as well as serving as its interim Executive Director. Ralph was a
member of the Oklahoma Association of the Deaf Board, and President of the
Oklahoma Council for the Hearing Impaired.
Upon his retirement, Ralph
managed a consulting business for two years, then chaired the first
national conference for deaf senior citizens, which led to the establishment of
Deaf Seniors of America, Inc. He served as its first President from 1994
to 1999. In 1997 he became Executive Director of the Texas
Association of the Deaf.
Honors/Awards
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Honorary Doctor of Laws
from Gallaudet University - 1995 |
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The Daniel Cloud
Leadership Award for Service to Deaf People from California State
University, Northridge |
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Pauline Peikoff
("Service to Others") Award from Gallaudet University Alumni
Association |
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Distinguished Service
Award from the Texas Association for the Deaf |
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The Dr. Ralph H. White
Educational Center at Oklahoma School for the Deaf named in his honor. |
Family
Ralph is survived by his beloved
wife of 55 years, Frances; and adored daughter, Vicki White Vystrcil, his
son-in-law and friend, John Vystrcil of Frisco Texas; two half brothers, Samuel
and Ruben White, and half sisters Mary McIntyre and Carrie Varnado,
sister-in-law, Doris White, niece MaryAnn White Pickering, and her husband,
Gordon Pickering. With Vicki's marriage to John, Ralph inherited two
grandsons, Chris and Scott Vystrcil, Scott's wife Jeri, and great grandchildren
Cassandra and Christopher. Ralph often joked that we made him age
overnight into a great-grandfather.
A student's Story
"In 1946 I was a student at
the Georgia School for the Deaf. History was my least liked subject, but
that fall my life was changed forever by the presence of a new teacher who had
just graduated from Gallaudet University the prior spring. It was the
young, handsome, and energetic Mr. Ralph White. As a classroom teacher he
made history come alive. It was like watching him perform on the world's
stage as he paced back and forth, signing and speaking, so we wouldn't miss a
thing.
Mr. White set out to teach us to
follow directions. One morning when we entered the classroom, we were
greeted with a pop quiz. On the test paper were ten very difficult
questions. The whole class agonized over them for an hour, except for
Maggie McGee who had not been deaf very long, and could not see well. We
knew we had to write down something, but Maggie handed him a blank sheet of
paper with her name on it. Mr. White collected our papers and
ceremoniously dumped them into the wastebasket, giving us all an F while Maggie
got an A+. She was the only one who had followed the directions written
at the top of the test paper. They were "Do not answer these
questions" ."
submitted by Lois Watkins Grizzard