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I WAS HONORED to have the opportunity to meet Carl G. Croneberg, a Deaf pioneer and an unsung hero. Deaf people, sign language users, and linguistic communities have often admiredWilliam C. Stokoe for his work on American Sign Language (ASL), a sentiment with which I completely agree. However, we sometimes forget about the Deaf colleagues who were involved in Stokoe's work, including Croneberg and Dorothy S. Casterline, and were also pioneers of American Sign Language and Deaf culture research.
Carl Gustaf Croneberg was born on April 26, 1930, in a small Swedish town with a population of roughly 2,000 people. He lost his hearing at the age of ten. Because of his deafness, his parents sent him to a Deaf institution. When he arrived at the school for the Deaf, he was in awe to see the other Deaf students using Swedish sign language to communicate with each other. At the school, he acquired and became fluent in Swedish sign language without being formally taught. During...