Gallaudet, Thomas

(June 3, 1822-Aug. 27, 1902). Father of Episcopal missionary work among the hearing impaired. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He received his B.A. in 1842 and his M.A. in 1845 from Washington College (Trinity), Hartford. From Sept. 1843 until Oct. 1, 1858, he taught in the New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes. He was ordained deacon on June 16, 1850, and priest on June 29, 1851. On Oct. 2, 1852, he founded St. Anne's Church for Deaf-Mutes, New York City. In Oct. 1872, he founded the Church Mission to the Deaf, and in 1885 he founded the Gallaudet Home for Deaf Mutes near Poughkeepsie, New York. Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., was named for him. The ministry of Gallaudet and Henry Syle with the hearing impaired is commemorated in the Episcopal calendar of the church year on Aug. 27. See Syle, Henry Winter.