Laurent Clerc Gallaudet

Darlene quickly IMmed me to tell me about the burial sites he visited in Hartford, Connecticut. Many of you knew that I enjoyed reading and discussing about History of this, that and there, I knew practically every detail of Deaf History from the past to the present.

But this one evaded me for a long time until Darlene mentioned it.

She said she was surprised to see the grave of "Laurent Clerc Gallaudet".

She said that Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet had a son named Laurent Clerc Gallaudet who died 14 months after the birth.

Darlene has the pictures of the grave marker if you are interested.

I always wanted to rename Gallaudet University to Gallaudet and Clerc University, just like Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Laurent Clerc deserved it as much as Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet did. It is travesty that Gallaudet named a dormitory after the nation's first Deaf teacher. It is corny that Gallaudet gets the university to be named after him, whereas Clerc was named the pre-secondary programs, The Clerc Center.

If not for Laurent Clerc, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet would be ... nonexistant!

Cheers,

R-