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John Duffy was pioneer for the hearing-impaired
BY COLLIN NASH
February 24, 2007, 7:59 PM EST
Stephanie Altman was just a toddler when her mother, Ellyn, sensing that her year-old baby's world was silent, took her to Kings County Hospital Center.
Dr. John K. Duffy, an audiologist and speech pathologist, told her young Stephanie was near totally deaf, Altman recalled.
Ellyn Altman, a clinical psychologist from Great Neck, said she almost lost it at the thought of her daughter not being able to communicate orally and, like most deaf people, would have to rely on sign language.
That was 40-plus years ago.
On Friday, Stephanie Altman, director of the Occupation, Speech and Physical Therapy Department at Terence Cardinal Cook Rehab Center in Manhattan, paid tribute -- in plain English -- to the man she credits with giving her the gift of speech.
"If it wasn't for him, I would not be able to speak as well as I do," Stephanie Altman said during a telephone interview, aided by a transcriber who dictated the questions to her. "He was an inspiration," she said of Duffy, who helped her learn how to speak and converse with others by reading their lips and body language.
Duffy, the former director of the Speech and Hearing Clinic at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital for more than 22 years and a pioneer in his field, died Jan. 7 at his Port Washington home of more than 50 years from congestive heart illness. He was 93.
Duffy worked tirelessly during an accomplished career that lasted well into retirement at 80-something, relatives said.
He taught some of the most severely hearing-disabled to communicate using Morse code with the eyelids. He was among the first to point to the overuse of antibiotics in youngsters with middle-ear infection, a practice that often led to hearing loss. And he developed the "Reading to Speak" method for teaching deaf and severely hearing-impaired children verbal language.
Duffy went against the grain of the Total Communication movement, which espoused sign language. He argued that children limited to sign language in their formative years had little chance of developing speech later in life.
Duffy was born in Rhinelander, Wis., into a poor, uneducated family, said Ruth, his wife of 66 years. He grew up in Rice Lake, Wis., and graduated from high school there, before attending the University of Wisconsin, where he earned three degrees, including his doctorate.
She and her husband met as students at the university, said Ruth Duffy. They married in 1941, a year after they had met. The couple had two children, one of whom, Jane Duffy, preceded her father in death.
"I was in awe I ever knew such a man, naturally chivalrous, thoughtful and kind," Ruth said.
Although his grandfather had risen to become a renowned scientist and researcher, he was not afraid of manual labor, said Timothy Duffy, who lived in the Port Washington home his grandfather built from a Sears catalog.
"He instilled this work ethic in me," said Timothy Duffy, who will run the nonprofit his grandfather founded. The Speech for the Deaf Foundation advocates the use of his Reading to Speak method to teach verbal language, speech and literacy to deaf and severely hearing-impaired children.
Ellyn Altman is thankful Duffy's legacy will live on.
"I was very lucky I stumbled into Kings County Hospital and crossed paths with John Duffy," she said. "We all feel very grateful to him."
Duffy, whose remains were cremated, also is survived by a son, David Duffy, and four grandchildren.
BY COLLIN NASH
February 24, 2007, 7:59 PM EST
Stephanie Altman was just a toddler when her mother, Ellyn, sensing that her year-old baby's world was silent, took her to Kings County Hospital Center.
Dr. John K. Duffy, an audiologist and speech pathologist, told her young Stephanie was near totally deaf, Altman recalled.
Ellyn Altman, a clinical psychologist from Great Neck, said she almost lost it at the thought of her daughter not being able to communicate orally and, like most deaf people, would have to rely on sign language.
That was 40-plus years ago.
On Friday, Stephanie Altman, director of the Occupation, Speech and Physical Therapy Department at Terence Cardinal Cook Rehab Center in Manhattan, paid tribute -- in plain English -- to the man she credits with giving her the gift of speech.
"If it wasn't for him, I would not be able to speak as well as I do," Stephanie Altman said during a telephone interview, aided by a transcriber who dictated the questions to her. "He was an inspiration," she said of Duffy, who helped her learn how to speak and converse with others by reading their lips and body language.
Duffy, the former director of the Speech and Hearing Clinic at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital for more than 22 years and a pioneer in his field, died Jan. 7 at his Port Washington home of more than 50 years from congestive heart illness. He was 93.
Duffy worked tirelessly during an accomplished career that lasted well into retirement at 80-something, relatives said.
He taught some of the most severely hearing-disabled to communicate using Morse code with the eyelids. He was among the first to point to the overuse of antibiotics in youngsters with middle-ear infection, a practice that often led to hearing loss. And he developed the "Reading to Speak" method for teaching deaf and severely hearing-impaired children verbal language.
Duffy went against the grain of the Total Communication movement, which espoused sign language. He argued that children limited to sign language in their formative years had little chance of developing speech later in life.
Duffy was born in Rhinelander, Wis., into a poor, uneducated family, said Ruth, his wife of 66 years. He grew up in Rice Lake, Wis., and graduated from high school there, before attending the University of Wisconsin, where he earned three degrees, including his doctorate.
She and her husband met as students at the university, said Ruth Duffy. They married in 1941, a year after they had met. The couple had two children, one of whom, Jane Duffy, preceded her father in death.
"I was in awe I ever knew such a man, naturally chivalrous, thoughtful and kind," Ruth said.
Although his grandfather had risen to become a renowned scientist and researcher, he was not afraid of manual labor, said Timothy Duffy, who lived in the Port Washington home his grandfather built from a Sears catalog.
"He instilled this work ethic in me," said Timothy Duffy, who will run the nonprofit his grandfather founded. The Speech for the Deaf Foundation advocates the use of his Reading to Speak method to teach verbal language, speech and literacy to deaf and severely hearing-impaired children.
Ellyn Altman is thankful Duffy's legacy will live on.
"I was very lucky I stumbled into Kings County Hospital and crossed paths with John Duffy," she said. "We all feel very grateful to him."
Duffy, whose remains were cremated, also is survived by a son, David Duffy, and four grandchildren.