George William Veditz is still renowned for his vigorous advocacy of Deaf rights and sign
language, and for his equally staunch opposition to the oralist movement. He is a legendary figure in
the community, the quintessential Deaf leader and champion – fiery, eloquent, brilliant, courageous,
uncompromising, unconquerable. His words still have resonance.
There are a few living persons who remember George Veditz. Merv Garretson recalls doing
“Saturday mowing and weeding” at his house in Colorado Springs. But after Veditz died in 1937, he
was pretty much forgotten. The Deaf community has been rediscovering him.
There isn’t sufficient space here to present a biographical sketch, but the outlines of Veditz’s
remarkable life are well-known: his birth in Baltimore (August 13, 1861) to Prussian immigrants,
attending an excellent German-English private school, being deafened by scarlet fever three months
before he turned 9, entering Maryland School for the Deaf (MSD) when he was 14, his academic
brilliance there and at National Deaf-Mute College, graduating in 1884 as its best student ever, turning
down an offer to enroll in Johns Hopkins’ doctoral program, teaching at MSD, and, in 1888, relocating to
the Colorado Institute for the Deaf and the Blind, where he taught for 17 years, marrying Mary Elizabeth
“Bessie” Bigler (1876-1960), an outstanding teacher, in 1894. Raising prize-winning chickens, squabs,
dahlias, and gladioli, being a formidable, nearly unbeatable chess player – he defeated the U.S.
champion and battled the world champion to a near-draw. And founding the alumni associations of
Gallaudet University (1889) and MSD (1892), and Colorado Association of the Deaf (1904).
Veditz as a Gallaudet graduate in 1884
Veditz as a teacher at MSD
Source: http://www.gallaudet.edu/about/history-and-traditions/george-veditz
Source: https://veditzsite.wordpress.com/pix-2/
Veditz was a charismatic figure, with his red hair, steady gaze, and the precision and stately
grace of his signing. He had a genius’s intellect and boundless curiosity. A prolific, witty, forceful writer,
he edited and contributed to several Little Paper Family (LPF) periodicals. He was proud of being a
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The Power of ASL
7
Winter 2017 – Issue 8