Thomas Gallaudet (1822–1902)
Thomas Gallaudet (June 3, 1822 – August 27, 1902), an American Episcopal priest, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. His father, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, was the renowned pioneer of deaf education in the United States. His mother, Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, who was deaf, was the founding matron of the school that became Gallaudet University.
After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, Gallaudet accepted a teaching position in the New York Institution for Deaf-mutes, where he met and married a deaf woman, Elizabeth Budd.
Following in his father's footsteps, in 1852, Gallaudet established St. Ann's Church for Deaf Mutes in New York City; in 1885, he established the Gallaudet Home for Deaf-Mutes near Poughkeepsie.
One of Gallaudet's students, Henry Winter Syle, became the first deaf person to be ordained by the Episcopal Church. Both Gallaudet and Syle are listed in the Episcopal Church's Calendar of Saints for August 27.
Gallaudet is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut.
