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Acknowledgments
This book was originally written as a dissertation for the School of Education of New York University I would like to thank my advisor (and friend) John Mayher, who helped me to realize the power of narrative as a tool to help educators understand the role they play in their students' lives, both in and outside the classroom. I am also grateful to
Harold Vine and Sue Livingston,
who served on my dissertation committee, for their careful and thoughtful responses to my work.
Much of the information contained in this biography was collected through interviews and correspondence with Bill Stokoe's friends and colleagues. They set aside time from extraordinarily busy schedules to help me understand the profundity and complexity of Stokoe's accomplishments. In particular, I thank George E. Detmold and Carl G. Croneberg.
Many thanks to Elena Marciante who spent long hours transcribing the taped interviews. Thank
you to Ivey Pittle Wallace,
managing editor at Gallaudet University Press, whose suggestions and comments (although I tried to resist)
were accurate and insightful, and to Martha Yager, who edited the manuscript with skill and sensitivity.
As I approach the end of this long and
sometimes difficult enterprise, I wonder whether there is anyway to express my gratitude to Bill Stokoe. Did he realize what he was getting into when he returned my telephone call several years ago Now that I know him, I think perhaps he did. After all, as a teacher and a scholar who has spent much of his adult life combatting the ignorance that surrounds
deaf language and culture, it probably was not surprising that a graduate student who knew very little about linguistics and possessed limited skills in American Sign Language would have the audacity to ask to be his biographer. This private and modest man had to endure my questioning and probing. At the same time, he had
to educate me so that I couldShare with your friends: