New York Times News Service
        c. 1999 New York Times Company

        Monday, January 4, 1999

        Merle E. Frampton, Advocate For Visually Impaired, Dies At 95
        By ENID NEMY

        Dr. Merle E. Frampton, an internationally known leader in the education and
rehabilitation of the visually handicapped, died on Dec. 17 in Portland,
Ore. He was 95.

        Frampton, the director of the New York Institute for the Education of the
Blind from 1935 to 1971, established many programs that later became
commonplace. He organized the first training program for special education
at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1936. Two years later, he
opened Camp Wapanacki in Hardwick, Vt., the first camp in the nation for
visually impaired children, and the following year he started a program for
deaf-blind and multihandicapped blind children.

        In World War II, he served as chief of rehabilitation services for the
Navy, starting a rehabilitation course to restore the morale of sailors and
marines blinded in battle and to retrain them for civilian life. He also
organized a victory garden, tended by students, in a plot behind the New
York Institute's building in the Bronx.

        In the 1950s, Frampton, together with the institute's athletic director,
persuaded Cornell University to contribute two four-oared racing shells so
blind oarsmen could compete in the New York Rowing Association's annual
Memorial Day regatta. The institute's other athletic activities included
wrestling, track and volleyball, played with a ball containing a bell.

        In his long career, Frampton helped develop state and federal legislation
for the education of the handicapped and helped draft a New York state law
for the education of the visually impaired and hearing-impaired.

        He also personally financed several scholarships from the teaching stipends
he received at Columbia University and Hunter College. At Hunter, he
organized a department of special education in 1945. After his retirement in
1971, he continued working for better diagnostic programs for handicapped
children.

        Frampton's work with the visually handicapped extended to diverse locations
like Arizona, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. He was also a
prolific writer on education and rehabilitation, particularly as it applied
to the visually impaired. Among his publications were "Education for the
Handicapped" (1940), "The School Assembly as an Education Force" (1943) and
"Forgotten Children" (1969).
        Frampton was born in Smithfield, W.Va., on Sept. 15, 1903. He graduated
from Boston University in 1927 and received a doctorate from Harvard
University in 1934.

        His wife, the former Iris Coldwell, died in 1972. He is survived by two
daughters, Iris Muggenthaler of Charlotte, Vt., and Diane Bickford of
Portland, and three grandchildren.



----------
End of Document


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html