In the early 1960's Dad was a teacher of preschool and kindergarten deaf children at Maple School in Tulare, California. The program at Maple School, which began in 1960, was unique in the United States. The 3-classroom unit was the only unit built for education of the deaf with local funds and under local authority. Without this facility in Tulare, the deaf children educated there would have had to attend residence schools for the deaf - away from home and families.
We don't know how Ward became involved in this branch of education. His Bachelor's degree was in business. He worked on his Masters degree, something related to deaf-education, at San Francisco State before securing the position in Tulare. We have an old recording of sounds Claire made as a baby (she was born in 1958) that he made as part of his course work. I believe the sounds were to be compared to those made by a deaf baby. Ward was the only male teacher of pre-school deaf children in the United States. Many of these details come from a newspaper article printed 10 Mar 1962 in the Tulare Advance Register titled "Science, Loving Care Make the Difference." According to the article, he taught six 3-4 year olds in the morning, and in the afternoon he taught 5-6 kindergarten children. "With toys, paint sets, rock collections, a large mirror and lots of patience, he succeeds in giving them audiometer tests, teaching them the fundamentals of lip reading, and preparing them for the instruction they will get in the future."
