[nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US

Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC) REBECCA.PICKRELL at tasc.com
Wed Jan 18 15:28:22 UTC 2012


This note just randomly popped up again. 
I'm wondering something. If people who were blind were so oppressed (isn't that what got NFB going)? how did this senator get to be senator? 
I've read that Americans tendto vote for politicians that they like ona personal level, people they'd like to drink beer with v. people who they think can do the job at hand. That's one reason why John Edwards was so despised, people thought "You bastard, you cheated on your wife, your wife who also has cancer". 
So, can somebody explain how the blind guy got to be senator if blind people were held in such poor regard?  

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Buddy Brannan
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 12:43 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US

All i've ever seen was a brief mention in "Love In the Lead", which basically said that this Senator (think his name was Thomas Scholl) got a guide dog from a trainer in Minnesota, the "Master Eye Foundation", I think, who got the dog from Germany, and it didn't work very well. Something like that. A slightly more complete account, which of course says something slightly different, was in "Almo: His Master's Eyes". I have both passages around here.

Anyway, I may be all confused about what details I got from where, but here is the relevant passage from Love In the Lead. (I seem to have lost Almo! How did that happen? See? It's the problem with being a packrat and then occasionally getting rid of things...)

     The German work had been brought to the attention of
American workers for the blind long before Dorothy's Post article
was published.  In 1923, the American Association of Workers for
the Blind heard a lecture on guide dog schooling by a German
trainer. In 1925, the Potsdam school offered Robert Irwin of the
American Foundation for the Blind to provide both dogs and
trainers for a fee.  John L. Synikin, a Minneapolis dog breeder,
studied the work in Germany and returned to set up the Master Eye
Foundation.  He imported a German-trained dog which he retrained
for Senator Thomas Schall of Minnesota in 1927.  At about the
same time, Josef Weber, who had worked with both police dogs and
guide dogs in his native Germany, was establishing a training
kennel outside Princeton, New Jersey.

[...]
     Morris answered immediately.  He began, "I have some good
news for you.  Senator Smutz of Minnesota" (he meant Senator
Schall) "has purchased a dog from Munich which was trained in
German, but is now being retrained in English and is proving
absolutely satisfactory to our sightless Senator, taking him all
over Washington.  I believe that in a month after I have the dog,
I can train it to take me anywhere in the United States."

[...]

     If there was any red tape about importing the dog, he begged
her to let him know, "so that I may be able to bring to bear any
political influence that my family may be able to have." Dorothy
Harrison Eustis must have smiled at this offer of political
influence from a boy of nineteen, but she admired both his
initiative and his altruism.  He wanted a dog not only for
himself, but for all blind Americans, and he was willing to work
for it.  She cabled him that there was no possibility of bringing
a dog on this trip and followed with a letter of explanation.
     Morris's reply accepted the delay with the thought that
"there is absolutely no use in rushing our work." The "our"
suggests that he has graciously taken her into partnership.  He
again listed a number of workers for the blind who knew his
mother and added that Senator Schall had not done nearly so well
with his dog as he had at first supposed.  In fact, his
difficulties had hurt the cause of the guide dog among the
workers for the blind. "Of course, you and I know that this is as
much the Senator's fault as the dog's, but I am confident that,
with a good demonstration, this objection can be quickly
overruled."
[...]


I'm still on the prowl for another copy of "Almo". 

--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On Nov 22, 2011, at 9:34 AM, Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC) wrote:

> Anybody know anything about the other guy? I'm curious. What do we know of him and what can we learn.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Margo and Arrow
> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 12:33 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
> 
> I still contend Morris Frank was the first person to actually use a guide
> dog because he actually used the dog, but, your point is well taken that
> someone else had a guide dog in this country.
> 
> Margo and Arrow
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Buddy Brannan" <buddy at brannan.name>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 12:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
> 
> 
>> Actually, Morris Frank wasn't the first person to use a guide dog in the
>> US. Theree was, apparently, a Senator who got one from a German trainer in
>> 1926, but it didn't do so well, or something. We never hear about that
>> guy, and I suspect there's a good reason for that.
>> --
>> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
>> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Nov 18, 2011, at 11:51 AM, Margo and Arrow wrote:
>> 
>>> I saw this on the Dog Park email list.
>>> 
>>> Margo and Arrow
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sherrill O'Brien"
>>> <sherrill.obrien at verizon.net>
>>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 10:29 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> This is such a well done and poignant video. Those of us who have had
>>>> Seeing
>>>> Eye dogs really appreciate Lucas Franck's dedication and professional
>>>> touch
>>>> in everything with which he is involved. Margo, was this on the Seeing
>>>> Eye
>>>> list, or on their website? Anyway, thanks much for passing it along to
>>>> us.
>>>> 
>>>> Sherrill
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org]On
>>>> Behalf Of Margo and Arrow
>>>> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 6:57 AM
>>>> To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
>>>> Subject: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> the following link has footage taken from The Seeing eye archives and
>>>> shows
>>>> Morris Frank, the first person to use a guide dog in this country.  He
>>>> and
>>>> Dorothy Harrison eustis founded the Seeing eye in 1929 and the guide dog
>>>> movement has moved forward since then and there are many guide dog
>>>> schools
>>>> in this country, Canada, and throughout the world.  the person narrating
>>>> the
>>>> video is Lukas Franck, a long-time instructor at the seeing Eye.  Lukas
>>>> trained my first two guide dogs--Deedee and Wayne.  Lukas also trained
>>>> wayne
>>>> and me as a team in 1991.
>>>> 
>>>> Margo and Arrow
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.youtube.com/user/seeing4me?feature=mhee#p/u/0/gwYHXNItSks
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> 
>>>> -----
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>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
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> 
> 
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