Richard Kinney

Richard Kinney (June 21, 1923 – February 19, 1979) was an American educator and school administrator. Blind at age six and deaf by age twenty, Kinney was the third deafblind person in the United States to earn a college degree. Kinney published four volumes of poetry and was president of the Hadley School for the Blind from 1975 until his death in 1979.

Early life and education

Richard Kinney was born on June 21, 1923, in East Sparta, Ohio. His parents were a teacher and a hardware store merchant. He was born with normal senses, but lost his sight after a bacterial infection when he was six years old. Kinney returned to mainstream schooling the following year at age twelve. In the 1950s, he wrote to Robert Smithdas, a deafblind man who had graduated from college in 1950; Smithdas encouraged Kinney to return to college to earn his degree. In East Sparta, hundreds gathered in an auditorium to recognize his achievement on what was denoted as "Richard Kinney Day."

He was the chair of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind Committee on Services to the Deaf-Blind.

Personal life

Kinney married Evelyn Davis Warmbrodt, a blind high school French teacher, in 1962. That same year, he won the Man of the Year award from the National Home Study Council.

A biography of Kinney was published by Lyle Crist in 1974 titled Through the Rain and Rainbow: the Remarkable Life of Richard Kinney.