Gabriel Farrell United States 1951-1952
Gabriel Farrell (1886-1968) was born in the United States. He was the fourth director of the Perkins School for the Blind, from 1931 to 1951. He revitalized the Perkins Deaf-Blind Department. He had the Perkins Braille writer redesigned by David Abraham after World War II. In 1956 he wrote "The Story of Blindness," a noteworthy book on the history of education of the blind and deaf-blind. One of his major interests was the prevention of blindness, especially finding the cause of retrolental fibroplasia.
Ernest H. Getliff United Kingdom 1952-1962
Ernest Getliff (19??-1977) was born in Nottingham, England. He had a very powerful charismatic character and had tremendous compassion. Getliff began teaching blind children at the Birmingham Royal Institution for the Blind toward the end of the 1920’s. In 1934 he was appointed headmaster of the Royal Bristol School for the Blind and superintendent of the Bristol Workshops for the Blind, of the Home Teachers Service in the 1940’s. In 1947 he became Honorary Registrar, College of Teachers of the Blind until 1969. In this position he played an important role in the training of teachers of the blind. He campaigned for Home Teachers, demanding that there should be no reduction in their status and training so that a really specialized service for the blind could continue.
Edward J. Waterhouse United States 1962-1967
Edward Waterhouse (1902-1999) was born in England. He was the fifth director of Perkins School for the Blind, 1951-1971. He worked at Perkins from 1933 until his retirement in 1971 as a teacher of mathematics and as a housemaster. In 1945 he was appointed manager of the Howe Press and supervised the development and production of the Perkins Brailler in 1951. During his travels to schools and agencies for the blind in numerous countries, he transmitted his ideas and provided inspiration, which contributed greatly to improving programs. He was especially interested in improving the education of the blind and deaf-blind and teacher training in developing countries.
Tore Gissler Sweden 1967-1972
Tore Gissler (1914-1979) was born in Sweden. He became a civil servant at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs prior to becoming director of the Royal Institute for the Blind in Solna from 1948 until he retired in 1979. During this period he oversaw the transition of the school from an academic institution to the eve of its closing and becoming the Tomteboda Resource Centre. Sharing the resources of his school and his country with visitors from many countries, he contributed to the dissemination of modern educational procedures for the blind and fostered interest in international exchange. He was the United Nations representative in Yugoslavia with the commission to propose how a better education for the blind should be established, 1954, 1958, and 1959.
Jeanne Kenmore United States 1972-1977
Jeanne Kenmore (1923- ) was born in the United States. She worked for many years in the field of the education of the blind, first as a teacher. In 1965 she became the first consultant at the AFOB’s office in Paris. She worked at AFOB, later named Helen Keller International, until 1981 when she went to work for the CBM. During her presidency she expanded ICEVH’s activities far beyond the five-year international conferences. She did this by arranging regional conferences and for consultants from developed countries to go to developing countries. In total she instigated at least 16 projects. In 1987 she retired from CBM. In total she spent 22 years working in 66 countries for AFOB (HKI) and CBM. She now lives in Florida.
Wolfgang Stein Germany 1977-1987
Wolfgang Stein (1930-2000) was born in Germany. In 1966 he became director of the Ebenezer School for the Blind in Hong Kong, and in 1970 director of Overseas Services, CBM until he retired in 1984. During his time with CBM he widened the work of the organization (which was at that time engaged mostly in Asia) to include Africa and South America. Under his leadership of ICEVH many more regional conferences were held and over 50 projects involving training courses were organized. He also made provisions for specialized equipment to be sent to schools and organizations in need in developing countries. He established greater communication through published literature and strengthening of local and regional ICEVH leadership.
William Brohier Malaysia 1987-1997
William Brohier (1933- ) was born in Malaysia. A former teacher at Raffles Institution, Singapore, he moved to Penang as Principal Designate of St. Nicholas Home (for the Blind) in 1960, a position he filled two years later after a year’s special training at Birmingham University, England. In 1973 he was appointed Executive Director of the home. He left this position in 1979 to take up a joint position as Regional Representative of S.E. Asia and the Pacific of the RCSB, now Sight Savers International and the CBM International of Germany. In August 1987 he became the first Asian elected President of ICEVI, and was elected for a second 5-year term in 1992. In early 1991 and 1993, he retired from these respective positions with Sight Savers and CBM but continued to serve CBM International, initially as a full-time advisor in Education and Rehabilitation of Visually Impaired Persons, and currently for 3-6 months a year. It was during his presidency that ICEVI began a series of efforts to restructure and truly became a representative organization.
Coen de Jong Netherlands 1997-2000
Coen de Jong (1938- ) was born in the Netherlands. He is an honorary vice president and fellow of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) and vice chairman of the Commission on Activities of Multi-handicapped Blind and Partially Sighted of the European Blind Union. He became active in ICEVI when he composed and chaired a working group on the ICEVI policy regarding persons with multiple handicaps. At the 9th ICEVI conference in 1992 he was appointed chairman of the ICEVI Standing Committee on Multiple Disabilities. This committee took as its first task the development of functional curricula for multi-handicapped children who have little or no access to formal education. He chaired the committee that prepared the 50th Anniversary of ICEVI in 2002. In 1997 he became president of ICEVI but due in part to ill health he stepped down in 2000.
Lawrence F. Campbell United States 2000 -
Larry Campbell, (1942 - ) was born in the United States. He began his work with blind persons while serving as a volunteer in a rural community in Jamaica. This experience would shape a career of thirty-five years in education and rehabilitation of blind and visually impaired persons, twenty-five of which has been spent in international work. In 1977 he was offered a position with HKI, and that was the start of twenty-five years of international work. Over this period of time he has worked in more than sixty countries in all of the ICEVI. Larry’s first contact with ICEVI was when he served as a member of the United States delegation to the 1977 World Conference in Paris. In 1992, Larry was elected vice-president of ICEVI at the Bangkok World Conference; a position to which he was re-elected in Sao Paulo. In 2000, Larry took over the helm of ICEVI and has worked hard to steer the organization in the new directions adopted at Sao Paulo. For the past seven years Larry has served as the International Program Administrator at Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, PA.