Williams, Rupert Jabez Duncan

Deafened at age 5 from spinal meningitis; entered the Manitoba Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb in 1902, graduating 1910. Became a printer, then in 1922 appointed dormitory supervisor at the Manitoba School for the Deaf, adding physical education teaching duties later. Married Myrtle Elsie Millham in 1929. Moved to Saskatoon, SK, and became involved in local efforts to establish a provincial school for the deaf in Saskatchewan. This eventually became a reality in 1931, and he declined the position of superintendent in the new school to become its chief supervisor of residential students, 1931-1963. The school was renamed in his honor, as the R.J.D. Williams School for the Deaf, in 1982, the only Canadian school to be named for a deaf person. Unfortunately, it was closed by the provincial government in 1991.