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Page special status. Stokoe was well aware of the advantage in having the confidence and support of the dean. "For fifteen years under George Detmold," he says, "my wishes for staffing for the department or for research were always respected, whether the money came from the college budget or grants, and George turned overhead earned on the grants back to the proposal writer/principal investigator to use in pursuing the research" Under President Elstad, George Detmold had enormous control at Gallaudet College, and even those who disagreed with him conceded that he was an effective administrator. The charges of favoritism were somewhat tempered by the improvements
Detmold made. In addition to guiding Gallaudet into the mainstream of accredited colleges, he instituted tenure and standing faculty committees and helped bring faculty and staff salaries and benefits inline with those of comparable institutions.
Even Robert Panara (the English professor Stokoe had replaced as chair) came to realize the value of Detmold's reforms. Panara recalls that when he applied to New York University's graduate school "the chairman . . . said he had never heard of Gallaudet,
and that even though I had all A's in my so-called English major at Gallaudet, he could not possibly figure out how to give me equivalent credit since the school had no accreditation."4
In 1969 President Elstad retired and was replaced by Dr. Edward C. Merrill, Jr, who quickly decided that George Detmold "was too inflexible to assist me to meet some of the challenging goals that I had initiated George Detmold knew he "wouldn't last long" once President Merrill arrived. "About the first assignment he gave me was to check, personally, all the fire extinguishers on campus.''6
It was a difficult time for Detmold. He was only fifty-two years oldtoo young to retire. He decided to resign as dean, take the yearlong sabbatical to which he was entitled, and then return to Gallaudet as a professor of English and drama.
Bill Stokoe wasted no time in alienating the new president. He describes a meeting held within a month of Merrill's arrival:
The first time Merrill presided over a faculty meeting, he said one of the things he wanted to change was the "image" of the

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