Pierre Gorman
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Pierre Gorman | |
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 Pierre Gorman at Cambridge in 1997 | |
| Born | 1 October 1924 Melbourne, Australia |
| Died | 1 October 2006 (aged 82) |
| Known for | Paget Gorman Sign System |
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Pierre Patrick Gorman, CBE (1 October 1924 – 1 October 2006) was an Australian librarian and academic who specialised in education for children with disabilities. Gorman, born profoundly deaf, was the first deaf person to receive a doctorate at Cambridge University.
Pierre Gorman was born in Melbourne, Australia, the only child of Sir Eugene Gorman, a barrister and soldier, and his French wife, Marthe Vallée, whom he had met while serving in France during World War I. Gorman was born profoundly deaf, and his parents resolved to ensure his education was as normal as possible. From the age of two, he was coached in speech and lip reading by two specialised teachers: Dr Henriette Hoffer (from the Centre Médico-Pédagogique in Paris) and Doreen Hugo (of the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution), with whom he learnt to lip-read and speak in both English and French. From the age of six, he attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School.[1]
In 1942, Gorman met the entrance requirements for the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1949 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree and an Honours Diploma in Education, and with a Bachelor of Education degree in 1951.[2] He then spent a year in Paris, where he studied the problems of children with disabilities, at Dr Hoffer's clinic. In 1952, he enrolled at Corpus Christi College at the University of Cambridge. Under the supervision of Robert H. Thouless, in 1960 he became the first deaf person to complete a PhD at Cambridge.[3]
