Percival Hall

Percival Hall (September 16, 1872 – November 7, 1953) was the second president of Gallaudet University (then Gallaudet College) from 1910 until 1945. He was a strong advocate of the use of sign language in the education of the deaf, and also an advocate for deaf rights to vote, work, participate in sports, marry, and drive automobiles. His eldest brother was Asaph Hall, Jr.

Percival Hall took a degree in mathematics at Harvard University in 1892. While still a student, he worked as an architectural surveyor for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), making drawings of existing structures with plans for improving bridges, as well as plans for proposed structures in the expansion of the railroad. The work was hard, as much of the time was spent in wild areas that required him to camp; hunting and cooking his own food. He observed that he saw few older people in this employment and that the work took a heavy toll on his colleagues.

A friend and roommate from Harvard, Allen Bradshaw Fay, whose father, Edward Allen Fay, was the Vice President of Gallaudet College, suggested that he teach the deaf.

He felt that, given the opportunity of higher education, there were many fields in which deaf people could excel. He published many articles on the education of the deaf. He retired from the Gallaudet presidency in 1945.

Family life Hall married Carolyn L. Clarke in June 1895, but she later died of illness in January 1896. In June 1900, he married Ethel Zoe Taylor, who had been a deaf student at Gallaudet, shortly after she earned her BA. professor of mathematics and astronomy at Gallaudet; Marion Hall Fisher, a writer (1905 – deceased, April 4, 1983); and Jonathan Hall (1912 – 2008), professor of natural science at Gallaudet. Jonathan was born in "House One," on campus, on February 6, 1912.