 So my presentation tonight is about the life story of mother delight rice and her children I'd like to show you this is the name sign that everybody used so when I use it you'll remember that this refers to delight rice and More about her in just a moment This is her picture That's her signature her first name was actually Delia Right Delia delight rice But she actually changed it somehow to just delight rice I'm not sure if it's official or not, but she went by delight rice on the far side You see her with a foster child, and I think the child had a little cognitive problems You see that picture on the left side of the slide on this slide Let me explain to you. I was in Washington, DC two weeks ago Into their public library and people asked me about how I started all this and so I decided that I should add a little bit about me in here I met delight When I was just an infant my parents were getting a little worried because they gave birth to a deaf baby and The doctor recommended that they should go meet delight So there I was just as an infant as you see on the far left and My parents met delight and that's been my story ever since my life with her Her parents are shown here her father Charles and mother Alice Also deaf both of them graduated from the Ohio school for the deaf Her father went on to Gallaudet in the class of 1880 1879 He never completed his degree due to financial difficulties on the far side of the slide you see her and her younger brother Percy You see delight in her younger brother on the slide here. You'll see the marriage certificate For her parents who the officiat there was the superintendent of the Ohio school for the deaf So you see that he's only performed the marriage Ceremony and it's a very small town north of Columbus, Ohio and Below that you'll see You know every year We you know we had different census that were taken and we had one from the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the deaf They wanted a special census for deaf people I'm not quite sure what their purpose was for asking that But there was a census and you'll see that it was dr. Faye, I believe it was let me let me read the slide here to be be sure hold on I'll refer to my notes. I'm sorry. It was dr. Edward Faye Who was an instructor at Gallaudet? Wanted to have some statistics so research was conducted for Alexander Graham Bell So apparently Alexander Graham Bell Association and Gallaudet had a good relationship in those years You'll also see the name of Delight's mother and father there on the certificate George was born July something difficult to read and died at the age of two Apparently some difficulty maybe food poisoning or something and then you'll see a third one that was Percy So the middle child was delight and then the last one was Freeman Well, actually Charles the father Charles Merrick rice Had a son Charles Freeman rice, but it was too confusing to have too many Charles in the family So they just referred to him as Freeman because if you look down the family lineage There were an awful lot of Charles, so they decided to simplify that and call him Freeman On this slide you'll see We're delight graduated from high school Columbus Ohio she then went on to Gallaudet Where they had established the normal school and she submitted an application never really heard from them so decided to go to the Columbus Normal School graduated from there and Then was in a teacher training program at the Ohio School for the deaf and then moved on to Wisconsin to the school for the deaf there as a teacher for the deaf and blind so a specialized teacher for the deaf and blind and you'll see some of the the interesting dates and Titles there on the slide and you'll see that's her picture the one that I'm referring to trying to circle with the red dot I'm sure you can see recognize her face and in this slide. We talked about the Helen Keller's now when delight was 22 She taught these three girls So she started at that program at the age of 18 but at the age of 22 She started to become a teacher about these three girls with these three girls And back then that's pretty much true to this day the Teacher would sit one-on-one with the students, but sometimes in the case of delight she sat one teacher with three students I don't know how she did it was amazing But she wasn't sure if they could understand color So she talked about the flag of the US with the red and white stripes and the blue square with the stars and Somehow she was able to convey color to students who never could see color and she was able to convey that to them It was remarkable You see Anna Johnson on the far left she actually visited California to Berkeley and And she vented visited Anna Johnson vented mother delight rice She learned Braille and worked for several hours Then I Have to say she was gifted. She was quite a proficient writer Despite being deaf and blind she being quite skilled at the art of writing On the far left you see a picture of delight when she was a teacher in Wisconsin And I'm not sure which of the two on the right it was but one of them delight took to the World's Fair in 1905 I believe it was so she took them around and used tactile signing in their hand and Explained everything that was there on the grounds of the World's Fair Amazing Here we have the CAID the Convention of American Instructors for the Deaf in 1905 you have a picture of the attendees and Included in the group we have delight rice there with her head slightly to the side right above that arrow and some other faces You might recognize Edward Minor Gallaudet you know being the first president of Gallaudet University of College at the time and In the book I had there's a photo album That I was allowed to look at and I it was a huge picture, but I was able to shrink it down to fit into a slide Now it's interesting because delight left the Wisconsin School for the Deaf went to Ohio Work there teaching the deaf blind students Then went on to the Ohio School for the Deaf and it was called the Ohio Chronicle Which was their newsletter? Local town newsletter and they had a test for you know civil service people who wanted to work And one of them was for civilians to go work in the Philippines And so you know it was that time of the Mexican-American War 1896 and the Philippines were occupied So they called many people Including many American teachers to go to the Philippines So she saw this Advertisement to take the civil service exam and she applied took the test passed at the first time and Was there for a salary? It was 2000 no 1000 oh, I can't remember exact number, but it was somewhere between one and two thousand for a year dollars per year And that so she started in January 1907 Left the US head for the Philippines Maybe in May or June she she left from San Francisco by boat by ship. I should say arrived in June so it took about 25 days 25 days on a ship to get from San Francisco to the Philippines now We fly in a matter of hours Anyway, she was there and there are a lot of American teachers and She she she said well where are delights children? You know because people had heard about her and the government and spent all this money and she wanted where all the deaf people were and you know, she looked around and Delights decided that she should make a request of the Philippine government to conduct yet Another census to see how many deaf students there were and they said only one or two She decided that she would go look for herself She met this one man But a deaf wife and they found out that there were a few other deaf people, but the thing was most of them were hidden away They were not easily noticed in the Philippines They have a very strong fear of God and God's retribution And if someone was deaf that means they were being punished by God or the parents were being punished by some act That they had done and they had given birth to deaf people as a result of their shameful deed So she worked long and hard to find the deaf children on the island There were members of the US military that went over with her and she would hike in the mountains Now don't forget at that time. They had headhunters Despite that she'd walk among them and she go I think a thousand or two thousand miles and would find these children and eventually brought them back to a central location and Was able to establish a school there. Oh I almost forgot to add that Delight had an interpreter as she went to the various tribes and she thought I don't need one because I Congesture very well and these people will understand me. I don't need an interpreter. So she dismissed the interpreter brave woman Here we see the first school for the deaf and this was established by the government and And They had the students lined up and they had the dorms and they had places for them to eat and sleep And you see the the first class a picture of them there and see a picture of delight You can see her off to the far left and And I should explain a little bit more to you About Lightman and I'll talk about that a little bit later and you see another woman We have Francisco and I'm sorry. I forget the gentleman's name. Let me look this up. Oh, you know, I it's Rogerio Lightman They were in in Mexico City Which is in the Philippines Mexico City in the Philippines and they taught the blind Now they both spoke English very well and it was the American soldiers who taught them English and Then Francisco's sister Acted as his eyes so she would do everything, you know, visually for him very faithful to her brother and Delight saw that and offered them a job in Manila to teach the deaf and blind children there Which they agreed to do and relocated She knew that they needed more training So she sent them to CSD the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley in 1909 and I'll talk more about that so that they could learn more and further their education before going back Emerita was the first school for the deaf and believe it or not Had enrollment that filled their classrooms to capacity they needed to relocate and this is a new location which was near the Manila Cathedral and The Manila Cathedral was very old and I know that Stan Smith and his parent his parents actually Served in the Navy and were married in this very cathedral imagine that and this was in the 1920s so this school ended up having Enrollment to capacity and they moved to an area that was full of mangroves And they had to build a wharf. They had to build the streets and not far from the the school They actually had to build a city so the students could come to the to the classrooms the Mexican Government gave this property to the school for the children There was a swimming hole and areas for the children have recreation and classrooms In the spring they would learn about farming and they learned about different birds and agriculture in addition to classroom exercise This school also became filled to capacity and they moved to passe city, which is south of Manila and An American woman was the holder of this land and she granted that to the school I think it was about I Believe it was fifty thousand dollars I think for them to construct the school and that's the school that still stands to this day But anyway in the top picture when the building was just barely finished being constructed She stood there for a picture and they soon opened their doors, and it was called the school for the deaf and blind Sdb and a later was changed to the to the Philippine school for the deaf and blind And then school for the deaf when the when the blind students were set to another campus, and that's the school that's here in the present time When the school was done being constructed. She moved to Berkeley. Let me move away from the podium for a moment here Up in the top corner. You see Rogerio Lagman He was the one who taught the deaf and blind students I referred to and then his sister, Francisca, and then the next one is Paula Delight Went to the school Sorry Delight sent Paula to the school and shortly afterwards she got married and Delight said sorry That's not a condition. I'll accept you need to come back home Pablo Santos was another student who came to Berkeley, but there were a lot of issues that he quarreled over You know He kept saying about how he was going to go into Gallaudet and did a lot of bragging about himself And if you look on the Gallaudet records, he never really enrolled there He was never accepted at Gallaudet and the people even Delight Were it was shocked back in the Philippines to find out that he never actually after all his bragging never officially enrolled at Gallaudet however on the good side of this He became a principal. I'm sorry. He became one of the leaders of the Philippine Association for the deaf some of these faces you may recognize on the slide Bernardo Was I had to say this but it was Delight's pet. She would just mother over him. She was his pet He was her pet He went into the school for the deaf in Berkeley along with Lester Naftali whose picture is over here Some of you know him some of you are familiar with Lester Anyway, Bernardo and Lester Went to school together Lester was born in the Philippines a long time ago. He and his his family were refugees from Russian Jews from Soviet Russia and fled to the Philippines and Was famous for being a stunt pilot and After all of that still never could find a job despite his talent Then Bernardo was a boxer. He loved Taking anybody on and having boxing matches. He enrolled at the school for the deaf in Berkeley got on the football team and Freeman Delight's brother actually taught him official boxing But he was injured in football and so never really went on very far in his boxing career He got married to Someone from Gallaudet then moving to the bottom row the four pictures at the bottom Li all four of these lived in California the first one George Attletweet attended public school and You know Delight would always go around to the schools and try to see where the deaf children were and she looked at George Attletweet and thought there was something wrong With him because he didn't speak he didn't have any language asked the school They said oh, yes, he's mentally retarded and she could not believe that she felt He was just deaf and so she had him in role at the school and he progressed quite well and went on to become a dean at A Lone College. He was also involved in the theater. He had a television production Let me see if I can get the exact name of that for you The television program was called silent perspectives and it had won an Emmy Award And he was the producer and director of that despite his humble beginnings and next is me of course We have Jeanette Davis the third picture here There were Other children in the family Several of them who attended the school for the deaf in Berkeley and then Daniel Lynch being the fourth picture that you see up there Delight tried to convince The Lynch family You know, there is a lot of trouble, you know as far as custody and had to deal with the courts so I don't know Dan and I were playing outside and Delight was able to convince his mother and just before his mother taught speech and So after he had some speech then she was more easily convinced That he should go to the school for the deaf. He became very involved with APTC he went to Gallaudet to graduate on and His mother kept teaching speech even after he was a Graduate of Gallaudet College. She decided she would continue to teach speech even though it was obvious He didn't need that for his education Delight was a pioneer in audiology too because it was fairly new in the 30s You have to think about the technology back then and all and she got this equipment one of the two pieces of equipment in the entire state of California and She started working in audiology and learning of what it took and teaching others about audiology when she retired at the age of 65 and moved on to Los Angeles and she gave a presentation at the Hearing Society of Los Angeles and She thought she was only going to be there a short time But she stayed on there for an entire year and was able to instruct 10,000 people on how to to give hearing exams and so on very successful career When she worked in LA she became a manager of the California home for the deaf Which was on Menlo Street. It had moved And so she actually became a manager there and during the summers during her summer break so to speak she would volunteer teaching in the University of the Pacific for Teachers who were pursuing a degree in audiology and show them how to conduct hearing exams and even people who had PhDs She would teach them and if there was someone who was invited as a guest speaker She was selected over those who had a doctorate. So she was very successful This here Maybe something you are familiar with the internment camps from World War two, you know after December 7th and the bombing of Pearl Harbor It hit many of us In it impacted us in a very serious way on the evening of December 7th. I remember My father was listening to the radio and I was watching him and all of a sudden he changed He got so emotional. He was standing up and screaming and crying and I didn't know what was going on until the next day When I saw the newspaper and in February they were all taken to an internment camp and of course they were worried about me And so my dad asked the light if she could become a guardian So that I could stay in California and continue attend attend the school for the deaf in Berkeley, which she accepted I got permission from the FBI to become Her foster child so to speak Imagine there I was in this household where nobody looked Japanese nobody looked like me their food their food was nothing that I was used to eating but despite that it changed my life because Remember there was no captioning there was nothing Interpreters on television and so I learned so much from her I was in a signing environment Prior to that I didn't know anything about the the Congress at Milan. I didn't know about George Vadid's I didn't know about any of this It was when I lived with her that she told me all these stories of a famous deaf people and all the hard work They did and I am so grateful to her for doing that for me on the right side You see a picture of my dad with several of us. There is my brother Bobby who's sitting here with us tonight Even his hand at you. That's my brother then You'll see Other members of my family here and then you're on this side You'll see my mother and my my aunt and there's Bobby and there's me and My brother Dan and and other siblings who are all still alive. I am the oldest Second in line is Bobby and then other siblings after us My brothers and sisters and my family had to go to Topaz internment camp And they're the ones who encouraged me to write a book and so I decided to do this one first And the next thing they want me to do is write an autobiography. So that's next on my to-do list This is very interesting Agatha Tegel Hansen Was chosen as one of the leaders at Gallaudet She was the first woman to graduate from Gallaudet When you go into the campus, you see these banners of the women leaders and her Picture and everything is up there. Delight had done so much She had so much of her time that she contributed Interpreting and doing all of this for the deaf community So I wrote a letter to the president of Gallaudet and said, you know that she should get an honorary degree and So she did oh, oh, I'm sorry Agatha Hansen wrote the letter and we're so grateful that she did she got her honorary degree and That year was the same year that I graduated from Gallaudet. So it was nice that the two of us were together You know at Gallaudet there is a tradition that you you get your diploma But instead of handing it to me they handed it to delight And so I broke with tradition and it was her so instrumental in my life She was the one who gave it to me very moving experience Richard West Came to visit to Delight's house and that's at a time that I was living there and was strongly encouraging her to go to the Philippines so she went back September 1961 and You would not believe the number of people that showed up for this event It had been 37 years since she was there before When she got there her students her pupils were standing there and You know they went over she would have to go over to each of their homes They would invite her over for dinner because of course they had to honor her for all the work that she done So rather than being there for a simple week or so she was there several months She actually stayed until the month of March and She was planning to go home, but the government actually gave her some funding I believe it was the tourist bureau that gave her some funding so that she could fly through Asia to Israel to Europe they gave her Money so that she could visit these schools for the deaf and blind throughout various continents That was their way of thanking her for all the work that she had done so many years ago When she died She her remains were brought to the Milfordton Cemetery very small town in Ohio You'll see that her brother and her parents are also buried there. It's a family plot. I went to the 100 year anniversary Stan Smith and I actually went for this auspicious occasion and you can see in the picture There I had actually given a tribute To my mother to delight. I did my presentation and then Stan Smith also gave the history of CAD a Book that was written as a gift to the Philippine government at the school Up at the top. You'll see that there was a stamp that was minted in her honor And it was drawn by students at the school. Here's my book Ready for distribution and I have here I've brought a box with me So while you're eating the recept the food at the reception you can purchase a book I'm happy to sign it for you and that's my closing remarks. Sayonara. I took a picture of myself There's a selfie at the Golden Gate Bridge