ABOUT

Dictionary.com: Deaf:  Partially or wholly lacking or deprived of the sense of hearing. 

We suffer various degrees of loss for various reasons.  We are thankful for the steadfast efforts of many that have led to improved lives for millions.  But while progress is being made I feel we have reached a plateau. The potential is there now for an enormous leap forward.  I am one of you and I would like to jump-start the process.  I need your help.    

I was born with nerve deafness in both ears.  As I have aged I have lost almost all hearing.  I was told after my most recent hearing test that my loss was in the profoundly deaf range.  Now, when I do not have my hearing aids on, I hear nothing.  I wake up to a silent world. 

Being born prior to laws that now require hearing tests for newborn babies, my parents did not suspect anything was wrong.  Soon they noticed I did not respond to sounds coming from behind me.  Tests given by Dr. Howard House, who later founded the House Ear and Research Institutes, disclosed a hearing loss in the 90 decibel range.  Dr. House helped me for years, we became good friends and I was later involved in fund raising golf tournaments for the House Institute (the Bob Hope/Howard House Tournament) and served on the Board of the House Research Institute. 

At the age of 4 my Mom and Dad bought 2 hearing aids for me.  At that time hearing aids had long cords that went from the ear molds to a battery about the size of a small pocket radio that was held in a shirt pocket.  Being very active in sports and a kid who loved to climb things (anything), wearing something like that was not in the cards.  Being very self-conscious did not help any either.  So I spent the next 10 years not wearing my hearing aids.

Big mistake.  Those crucial, formative years shaped me in a variety of ways that have stayed with me throughout my life.  Probably the most pronounced negative impact was a lack of self-confidence in any situation requiring interaction with other people.  One on one I was fine because as a matter of survival I became an expert lip reader.  But I always avoided, whenever possible, group gatherings requiring my mingling with others.  Still do.  No one enjoys being put in uncomfortable situations and those can be very uncomfortable for the hard of hearing.  If you add dim lighting they become downright frightening for us lip readers. 

And since we humans talk like we hear, my speech suffered greatly.  When I began wearing my hearing aids, it took 3 years of speech lessons with a lady who taught proper diction to movie actors, to improve my speech. 

I have lived a wonderful life.  After graduating from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California I spent my life in the golf business.  I am most certainly not complaining.  As always, God knows what he is doing.  If something has been taken away he compensates in other ways.   He has been good to me.  I have a wife I treasure, 4 healthy kids and 6 healthy grand kids, none with any hearing loss.  If there were a Guinness Book of World Records category for families who heard the word “What?” the most, we would win hands down.  I did have a grandmother on my father’s side that had normal hearing until becoming deaf in her forties.  I find myself more and more doing what she did as she got older.  At family gatherings she was content to observe and enjoy.