Walter R. Dry spent his complete life educating blind college students in two states. Rising from an in a position teacher on the Washington State College for the Blind to the superintendent of the Oregon State College for the Blind, he championed the Oregon Plan to maneuver the scholars into public colleges. The versatile Dry taught fitness center, typing, woodshop and piano tuning — and, within the course of, realized there have been few limits to what a blind youngster may obtain.
Considered one of his partially sighted college students, Emil Fries, graduated from the College of Washington and based the Piano Hospital and Coaching Middle on Evergreen Boulevard in 1945. (It closed in 2016.) Fries and his former trainer grew to become good pals, and Dry mentored and suggested him. When Fries was turned down for the blind college’s supervisory place, he turned to Dry, who merely instructed him, “You know why.”
One other scholar, Don Donaldson, recalled in his autobiography, “What’s in a Name,” that Dry taught him to kind utilizing simply seven fingers. Donaldson had misplaced the others enjoying with dynamite caps. Donaldson additionally graduated from Washington and wrote a thesis in regards to the historical past of the varsity for the blind as much as 1938. Whereas his thesis doesn’t point out Day, it supplies insights into scholar life on the college and its management. He tells how the superintendent, Thomas Clarke, believed within the “religion of work” and the way the varsity emphasised the independence of scholars by offering them with expertise they’d want in life.
Dry labored underneath Clarke for a number of years, however by the point Donaldson’s thesis was revealed, he’d left. In 1931, Oregon Gov. Julius Meier was busy cleansing his administrative homes. With board approval, he dismissed J.W. Howard, superintendent of the varsity, and the varsity’s complete employees, together with Howard’s spouse, a faculty matron. The board voted unanimously to switch Howard with Dry, who was free to restaff the varsity as he noticed match.