Who was at NTID starting in 1968, and did not leave until the mid 1990s? Who had a way of making the deaf students feel special, and welcomed deaf students into his office?
Dr. William E. Castle. Although he was hearing, as a dean he signed fluently and was an active supporter of NTID. By 1979, he was the RIT Vice President and Director of NTID.
Published Works
Even before he started at NTID, Castle was involved in deaf education. In 1967, he was involved with the "Final report on the seminar on skills and knowledge needed by audiologists and educators of the deaf," published by the the American Speech and Hearing Association (later the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association).
Castle wrote or co-wrote, articles in the American Annals of the Deaf (1974), the Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness (1987), a paper in the International Congress on Education of the Deaf conference proceedings (1982), the Deaf American Monograph Deafness: 1993-2013 (1993), and the NTID Focus magazine (1991).
Financial Support
Castle and his wife Diane established the Dr. Genji Murai Endowment Fund in 1993 to support international deaf students attending NTID.
Contribution to NTID History
Castle helped originate the NTID student congress, NTID's student government, when in 1971, he had a group of students write a constitution for NTID students.
An Abrupt End to a Career
Unfortunately, Dr. Castle was fired by NTID around 1994-95. An About Deafness visitor submitted the story and his personal comments:
"I remember Doctor Castle. He was the kindest hearing man that the deaf community (and world) ever had in our lives.
But the way he was let go from NTID stands out in my mind and I have not forgotten it.
It all started when I was still a student in NTID. Heather Whitestone, then a deaf Miss America, was visiting the campus. She and Doctor Castle were sharing a private joke around other people in which Heather was trying to explain to him. Apparently, she didn't clear it up as he misunderstood it (the joke). It wasn't until a later event on campus in the NTID Theater that Dr. Castle finally got the "joke" and was telling it on stage. But, it fell flat and infuriated some women among campus community.
Later, I was in one of the computer labs and I came across an email of a terminal that was left on. Some of the women were planning a sexual harassment suit against Doctor Castle just for Heather Whitestone's sake. I printed it out and raced across the campus to stop the women from carrying out the deed. Unfortunately, I was too late. The firestorm of an unintended history change had begun.
Heather Whitestone had one more event on the RIT campus, but by the time the women had gotten several other NTID professors up against Doctor Castle, Heather wisely canceled the event and immediately left on advice of Campus Safety. The NTID Students were then shocked at the news of the allegations. Doctor Castle was told to leave, in which he did in protest, and later he was fired from RIT. The two women students, who brought the allegations against Doctor Castle, were advised to leave in the late quarter for their own safety.
After the events had calmed down, Doctor Castle made a vow that he would not write his memories of how he established NTID. The NTID community truly lost his own historical perspectives of how NTID came into being since he was our institutional founder. Heather Whitestone became Persona Non Grata (not welcome here) on the NTID campus because Doctor Castle still had loyal supporters among both the students and the alumni. (I don't know how Gallaudet University sees Heather Whitestone in their perspectives, but someone would have to post that area).
NTID History is incomplete! Those who wrote the book really don't have Doctor Castle's perspectives. The NTID community has truly lost a friend who was unjustly fired and treated badly. RIT does not deserve NTID anymore for what they have unjustly done.
The time has now come for RIT and NTID to recognize Doctor Castle’s contributions for the Deaf community and deaf education. RIT is famous because of its background of having a famous deaf college. It can’t ignore NTID’s history. If RIT forces NTID to wait for Doctor Castle to pass away, then it will hurt all of us NTID alumni a whole lot more. Help us to honor Doctor Castle as soon as possible."
An About Deafness visitor wrote:
I had a very high rapport with the fine and cheery couple the Drs. William and Diane Castle that was very early waaay back in 1966 to 1972. They are quite instrustmental in the consulation of guiding the local parents of the students with heaing problems through the local public schools and I was one that experienced such a complex transistion in the educational jungle in Charlottesville Virginia Public High School system . Dr Diane Castle was also my audiologist there too. I would quite term them as the idealist as well sensitive on the deaf issues not those who are stereotyped on such assumed worlds.
