Huston, his two brothers and three sisters could hear. But the only hearing adult in the home was their father, a traveling salesman who was rarely home.

"There was no spoken language in our household," said Huston. He didn't speak until he began going to school, where he received help from a speech therapist.

The experience of being raised as a deaf child motivated Huston years later to dedicate his professional life to helping deaf people and training others to communicate with them.

For 20 years, he helped expand the deaf studies program at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill.

"Our graduates are working all across the United States as paid interpreters, counselors and teachers," Huston said.

The deaf community honored Huston, 56, of Haverhill last fall with the Thomas Gallaudet Service Award, named for the pioneering educator of the deaf. It is given by the Massachusetts State Association of the Deaf to a hearing person whose work benefits the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

One of his graduates, Holly Dickinson-Amidon, 40, of Andover went on to earn a master's degree in special education. Dickinson-Amidon was introduced to American Sign Language during summer camp when she was 11 years old. She fell in love with the language and planned to study it someday.

She went on to enroll at Northern Essex and attended classes taught by Huston.

"From the very first day in class not a word was said," she said. "Bill demanded excellence from us and he got it. His whole life has been dedicated to teaching American Sign Language and to promoting awareness of the deaf community. He definitely deserves the award."

His work with the deaf community began in 1971 after he was discharged from the Marines. He learned about the oppression of the deaf at that time as well as the work taking place at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the first and only liberal arts college for deaf people in the world.

Huston began attending Gallaudet to learn to teach sign language and devoted the next three years to working as a deaf interpreter and training others to communicate in sign language. He went on to earn his master's degree and got a job teaching sign language in Boston.

In the fall of 1982, Northern Essex Community College asked him to coordinate the school's new deaf studies program.

Over the next 20 years, Huston helped refine and develop the program and taught hearing people the skills they need to work with deaf people. The program became a model for three other community colleges that were developing similar programs.

"At first we could barely fill our classrooms," Huston said. "Seven years later we had a waiting list."

He proudly points to the fact that roughly one out of every five state or nationally certified interpreters in Massachusetts was trained by Northern Essex.

Paul Bevilacqua, vice president and dean of academic affairs at Northern Essex, said that when Huston retired three years ago he left the deaf studies program in good hands, although he was sad to see him go.

"Bill's footprint is gigantic in terms of building on the initial foundation that was created in the '70s," Bevilacqua said. "It's unfortunate he had to retire. It was a blow to us. He had a unique set of skills."

Since Huston's retirement in 2002, his time has been split between traveling overseas to visit his two daughters who are in college and consulting with the state and human service agencies on issues related to the deaf community.

"I think I learned more from the deaf community that I've given back," Huston said. "I've lived an exceptionally rich life, from dirt poor, to combat veteran, to retired and working as a volunteer and consultant. I'm allowing life to unfold just as I've always done."

By Mike LaBella
http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/15/etstory.pl?-sec-News+fn-huston111.0118