On June 19, 2000, Gene R. Petersen, Eugene Petersen's son, wrote to express his support for a project proposed to the National Endowment for the Humanities - "Life Histories of Deaf Americans." This new project builds on the work done by Eugene Petersen in the 1980s, and on the work Susan Foster and I did in putting Eugene Petersen's book up on the World Wide Web. Gene writes: "During the years after my father's untimely death, our family always wondered how his work could be published, but none of us felt adequate enough to push for the editing, etc. involved in getting the document in print."

As part of his letter of support for the new project, Gene included an "appendix" that highlights why he thought his father did what he did, that is, interview deaf Americans and write their life stories in his book. Gene's appendix is below

. --Gail Hyde, August 2000

My father worked hard to create a pathway forward in his life that created value for himself and his family. Deafened at age 8 from a serious illness, he nevertheless completed high school in Salt Lake City, Utah, at West High School in what today would be called "mainstreaming." However, he did not have the benefit of all the help available to mainstream deaf students today. Deafness was a burden to him as a youth. For example, as a young man he would often cross the street to avoid having to talk to other school mates who were coming down the street. Working in a print shop in Salt Lake City afforded him a chance to be involved in work that many young deaf adults in his situation often undertook. The noises of the printing machinery were not a barrier to him and others in his situation. He maintained a job in the printing and later newspaper business even following his marriage to his first wife Phyllis Granieri.

One of the initial steps that led him to a life of activism in the deaf community was joining the Utah Association of the Deaf, the UAD. Here he met a broad cross section of deaf adults with whom he became actively involved. With his experience in the printing business he undertook the publication of a UAD newsletter and served as its editor. His old electric typewriter was a well used machine in our house. Through his involvement in the UAD and the deaf community, he realized how insular the deaf community was and that he had a chance to expose members of that community to the larger community around them. One approach was to involve parents of deaf children in the UAD. These were often hearing parents who did not realize there was a world for their child beyond the special classes and their homes. I would sometimes accompany him to translate for him. I could sense the hesitation of the parents to become involved in the deaf world. My dad was very patient and spent many hours providing information to parents of deaf children about the potential advantages to membership in the UAD. He would point out that this world involved opportunities for their sons and daughters to become involved in a like-minded community as well as helping their children fit in with the rest of society. Success was varied but he was influential in coupling two disparate communities for whom deafness was the common link.

During his activism in the deaf community, he became involved with a wide range of deaf individuals, all of whom had their own stories and experiences in achieving varying degrees of success. He recognized that the business of vocational rehabilitation had more benefits than just helping people find work. It had a long term benefit of producing useful members of the community who paid taxes. He preached that and lived that. He and the circle of deaf friends to whom I was exposed exhibited a fierce pride in their independence. I pitied the deaf pencil salesman who came to our door and met my dad. They got the lecture of their lives about finding a job and getting off the streets. His involvement led to an opportunity that was a definite turning point in his professional life. He was recommended for a job at the Crossroads Rehabilitation Center in Indianapolis, Iindiana. He was being recruited to work with multiply-handicapped deaf and the center's attempts at rehabilitation. It was an attractive job for a young man just out of school. My dad was 46 years old, had no formal schooling beyond high school, 5 kids, a grandchild, a mortgage, and deep roots in Utah. However, a supportive wife and a chance to fulfill a dream of working in a field that he had learned to love gave him the courage to pack up his bags and take his wife and two young sons to Indiana. Notably, this involved a cut in pay in addition to family separations. He left me and his two married daughters and grandson to care for the home while he took his life and a dream to Indiana. While it was very hard and he left the door open to return by keeping his printer's union card, it was clear to me that he intended on making this career change work. He maintained an active role in deaf affairs on both the local and national level. He was a mentor to young professionals. His long years in the newspaper business setting type for the editorial pages had honed his vocabulary, his English, and his ability to write expressively (I always got better grades in English classes when he proofread and edited my papers.)

Why do I write all this? Besides being very proud of what my dad did, it has become clear to me why he took upon himself a project that involved highlighting the lives of both the common and the famous, the rich and the poor, and the educated and the laborer in the deaf community. He had risen out of a common environment and was working with professionals who had degrees even though his professional status was earned through experience and hard work. His idea was to provide a profile of the deaf community that could inspire young deaf adults, adults, and even others not in that community to see themselves as useful and productive members of their own communities. He also felt he could provide a compelling and entertaining set of stories that would give the deaf community a sense of pride. He was impressed by the Studs Terkel book, Working, which outlined the lives of ordinary working people and how truly impressive the accomplishments of regular, ordinary folk could be. He wanted to bring that kind of flavor to the hidden or silent community of the deaf. In his day, the Marlee Matlins of the world and a deaf Miss America from South Carolina had not entered the American scene. The life stories of everyday ordinary deaf folks had just not been told. He felt passionately that the stories of the deaf community needed to be heard, from the Nobel Laureate to the rancher.

How he fulfilled this dream is another story of perseverence and creative thinking. He would apply for an endowed chair at Gallaudet University and propose to use this chair to obtain material for his book. The chair was endowed to allow students to interact with deaf role models. Remember, my dad had only a high school education and a few college credits. His proposal was reviewed favorably and he and his second wife, Inez, moved to Washington, DC, to start this year long project. Since he was a senior, he could get inexpensive airline passes and spent time with his video camera to visit a list of potential chapter candidates across the country. Inez, his second wife (his first wife died in 1969), would often charm the potential candidates into a receptive state where they would then be willing to discuss their lives. The result was a thick book. The first attempt at publishing it brought back a call to trim the size of the book and edit the text. This was where the project lay when he and Inez were involved in a fatal car accident. As a family, we wondered if the efforts of our father would ever be published. We certainly did not feel qualified to do it.

I believe that the unfailingly optimistic spirit that my Dad bore was found in everything he did and tried. He obtained little or no wealth. He achieved modest recognition for his efforts. He did always feel there were ways to make an impact. His anthology of stories was one. A continuation of that concept validates his belief that all individuals have a story to tell that can have an impact on someone, however modest or great a life they have lived or are living.

Gail Hyde
Project Coordinator, Web Design