In Memoriam: Dr. Mary Delaney, S.S.J.

In Memoriam Dr. Mary Delaney, S.S.u. Dr. Mary Delaney, S.S.J., professor of teacher education and coordinator of the Canisius College/St. Mary's School for the Deaf Cooperative Teacher Preparation Program for nearly 30 years, died on August 5, 1996. She was 68. Sister Delaney was a Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf representative to the Joint Annals Administrative Committee. A long-time friend and avid supporter of the Annals, Sister Mary never missed a Joint Annals Administrative Committee meeting in her more than ten years of service to the Annals. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sister Delaney earned a B.A. in English Education from St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, New York (1950); a M.A. in Deaf Education from Hunter College in New York City (1952); and an Ed.D. in Curriculum from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1965). She was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Kentucky from 1991 to 1992. Sister Delaney was a professionally certified Teacher of the Deaf, Teacher of English, Administrator, and New York State Impartial Hearing Officer for Due Process Hearings. Sister Delaney taught junior high school in New York City from 19501952 and subsequently entered the Sisters of St. Joseph. She taught at St. Mary's School for the Deaf and professed her vows in I96I. She joined the Canisius faculty in I963 as a lecturer in education and in 1967 began directing the deaf education program — the only cooperative program of its kind in upstate New York. In June, 1995, she received a $94,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to enrich the college's graduate program for teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students. Active as a lecturer, consultant, workshop leader, and evaluator, Sister Delaney was a regular site visitor for the National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education and for the Council on Education of the Deaf. She was also a frequent visitor to campus of Gallaudet University in Washington , DC, where the Annals makes its home. With her colleagues, E. Ross Stuckless and Gerard G. Walter, from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York, she completed a Total Communication research study in 1984. That study was published in the December, 1984 issue of the American Annals of the Deaf "as "Total Communication Effects —A Longitudinal Study of a School for the Deaf in Transition" (481-486). She also taught Total Communication courses for residents in the western New York area. Sister Delaney's professional memberships included the Alexander Graham Bell Association, the American Society for Deaf Children, the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, the Association of College Educators of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf, the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf, the National Association of the Deaf, the New York State Association of Educators of the Deaf, Phi Lambda Theta, and the Western New York - Jamaica Partners of the Americas. More importantly, Sister Mary Delaney was a person of tremendous warmth and humor, with an unwavering commitment to her religious community and to the education of deaf and hard of hearing children and their teachers. The field of deaf education has lost a treasured friend and colleague. Volume 141, No. 4 American Annals of the Deaf ...