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McGrain, V (2014). In memoriam: Robert F. Panara. American Annals of the Deaf, 159(4), 13-14.
Robert F. Panara, much-beloved professor emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), author, poet, histo- rian, international authority on deaf figures in literature, and the first deaf professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), died July 20. He was 94 years old.
It is believed that Mr. Panara was the first deaf person to obtain an academic teaching position after graduating from the New York School for the Deaf, in White Plains, NY, and the first deaf person to earn a master's degree in English from New York University. RIT/NTID named its theater after him in 1988 and created a schol- arship fund in his honor.
Mr. Panara was born hearing in Bronx, NY. At age 10, he contracted spinal meningitis, which left him profoundly deaf. He attended mainstream public schools and often relied on classmates to take notes for him or mouth words so he could lipread.
He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, in New York City, learned sign language at the American School for the Deaf, in Hartford, CT, and earned a bachelor's degree in...