Graham Anthony Obituary

Graham B. Anthony (1897-1967)

Following is an excerpt from Mr. Anthony's obituary, written by then American School for the Deaf Superintendent Dr. Edmund B. Boatner in the school magazine, the "American Era":

". . . When we visited the print shop, Mr. Anthony delighted the late Mr. Walter Durian, our printing instructor, by spelling on his fingers to him. Graham explained that when he was a boy, he roamed the hills of North Carolina, hunting and fishing with two deaf boys who attended the North Carolina School for the Deaf. Through them he acquired a lifelong interest in the deaf.

"Mr. Anthony tendered outstanding service on our board and was chairman of our executive and nominating committees for many years. Undoubtedly, his greatest service was in connection with Captioned Films for the Deaf. We were struggling to get this project forward, and it was he who suggested we try to get an act through Congress to make Captioned Films for the Deaf a federal project. He was a great friend of Dr. Mary Switzer, having come to know her when he served on The Presidents' Committees on the Handicapped. Through him, we obtained her invaluable and enthusiastic support. But for Graham Anthony, however, the bill would have failed to pass since it was buried under a log jam in the House Committee on Education and Welfare. It was through his personal friendships with members of the committee that the bill was rescued and passed by the House just at the close of the 1958 session . . ."

Tags: history, dcmp