Tillinghast, David Ray

Born at Fayetteville, NC; deafened by whooping cough between ages 5 and 6. At age 12, sent to the New York School for the deaf (Fanwood), being elected teacher in 1862 before he had even finished his courses there; stayed 6 years in that capacity. Became a teacher in the North Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind from 1868 onward. His two hearing sons also went into deaf education, Edward Stansbury Tillinghast (q.v.) as superintendant of the Montana, Oregon, Missouri, and South Dakota schools for the deaf, and the other son as superintendent of the School for the Deaf in Belfast, Northern Ireland.