William Stokoko Research Paper
William C. Stokoe was born July 21, 1919, in Lancaster, New Hampshire. He had a brother two years younger whose name was Jim. He went to Wells College in 1937 to study physical chemistry. Stokoe then realized that it was too expensive and required massive amounts of time, so he changed his mind. Instead, he attended Cornell University for his undergraduate degree where he received the Boldt Scholarship that helped pay for his tuition. Things were going smoothly, but in 1940 he had a mental break down and was diagnosed as manic-depressive. He took a year off and then returned to college and met a lady named Ruth Palmeter. They eventually got married in November, 1942. Stokoe and his wife helped on the family farm but he eventually went back to graduate school in Cornell University. Stokoe and his wife had a daughter named Helen Marie Stokoe and a son named James Stafford Stokoe. William Stokoe graduated in 1955 from Cornell with a Bachelor's degree and a Doctorate in English. Soon an old college friend, Dean George Detmold, offered him an English professorship at Gallaudet University. After almost 30 years of teaching, he retired in 1984 from Gallaudet University. In May 1988, he was given an honorary degree from Gallaudet University for
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Some people might view that as a bad thing, but in his case it helped him accomplish all of the things he did. Even when he was younger, he was known as “Stubborn Stokoe” because he always argued with his teachers. His stubbornness remained with him to his adult years and that helped him to be successful. There were so many people who were against his studies and thought he was crazy for trying to prove that American Sign Language was a actual language. Although all of this negativity was thrown his way, he was persistent and pushed through it all. Due to these qualities, he was recognized both nationally and internationally as the father of the linguistic study of sign
Some people might view that as a bad thing, but in his case it helped him accomplish all of the things he did. Even when he was younger, he was known as “Stubborn Stokoe” because he always argued with his teachers. His stubbornness remained with him to his adult years and that helped him to be successful. There were so many people who were against his studies and thought he was crazy for trying to prove that American Sign Language was a actual language. Although all of this negativity was thrown his way, he was persistent and pushed through it all. Due to these qualities, he was recognized both nationally and internationally as the father of the linguistic study of sign