Vernon, McCay

Hearing. Born at Washington DC; held a variety of menial jobs while in high school and college to help support his family after his father died; served in the U.S. Army for a year after graduating high school, them earned a B.A. at the University of Florida. First worked for the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in furniture inventory, then got a new job teaching blind students there; he also coached the deaf students' basketball team. Went to Gallaudet College graduate school on a scholarship in 1954; while there, met and married his deaf wife Edith Goldston (Vernon, q.v.). After finishing his first master's, taught P.E. and coached at the Texas School for the Deaf, then the next year, 1956, taught and coached at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind. By 1958, completed a second master's degree, taught and counseled at the California School for the Deaf, Riverside until 1962, then became a clinical psychologist for a Riverside hospital, student and researcher at the University of Illinois, and professor at DePaul University in Chicago, all while working on his Ph.D.; authored several books on deafness. Recruited in 1969 for the new deaf education program at Western Maryland College; remained there until retirement.