Cover next page > title: Seeing Language in Sign : The Work of William C. Stokoe author

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Page the time and the reaction of other deaf faculty to Stokoe's appointment:
Sure, lots of my friends and colleagues talked about the "unfairness" of the fact that I was replaced as chairman by Bill
Stokoe. However, this was 1956, and if you understand deaf education in the schools and at Gallaudet during that era and before, you will understand that we were much like the Negro at that time we felt "lucky" to have our jobs as teachers of the deaf in the state schools, more so at Gallaudet, and we were all resigned to the fact that deaf education was controlled by "the hearing world" Callus 'Deaf Uncle Toms" but you have to have been therein that day and age, in our shoes, to understand. 17
Detmold earned even more enemies among the deaf students on campus over the case of Ted Hughes, a deaf professor who had directed the theater program at Gallaudet for years and was a particularly popular figure on campus. Detmold knew what he had to do to get the college accredited, and in the process he decided to have Ted Hughes stop teaching the drama course. Bob
Panara remembers that Detmold assessed Hughes's course as "equal to a high school curriculum" (Judging from the Middle
States Association report and Detmold's observations, this may have been a diplomatic understatement. It was Hughes who had ordered Life magazine as a text and permitted his students to put their heads on their desks to rest their eyes) According to
Panara, Detmold's actions broke Hughes's heart. "He never again attended any Gallaudet plays" Panara recalls. "About three years later, when the senior class finally got him onstage again to accept the honor of having the yearbook dedicated to him, he suffered a heart attack and died right onstage. About a year later, George Detmold took over as director of the Gallaudet theater since he had a PhD. in drama."18
It is easy to imagine the resentment such incidents must have engendered. In retrospect, Detmold's desire to spend time with Bill
Stokoe, his oldest and best friend, seems reasonable enough, and the changes he made in the faculty and administration were essential in order to obtain accreditation. However,

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