[NFBOH-Cleveland] National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Cleveland Chapter, Honor's Barbara Pierce, Recognizing Women History Month

[Suzanne Turner]

National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Cleveland Chapter

Honor’s Barbara Pierce In Recognition of Women History Month

 

                                      BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

                                                   of

                                          BARBARA PIERCE

 

            Barbara Pierce served as president of the Ohio affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind for 24 years.  She has been active at every level of the consumer group for almost 40 years.

            Mrs. Pierce is a 1966 Magna Cum Laude graduate in English from Oberlin College and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

            Although she was certified to teach high school English, she has chosen to work in several other fields.  These include jobs as prepared childbirth instructor, hospital chaplain, college administrator, and magazine editor.  She edited the Braille Monitor, the monthly magazine of the National Federation of the Blind, until 2010 and worked part-time with her successor for several more years.

            Pierce has co‑authored two books: The Design of Poetry, a text for high school students, and The Media and the Message, a public relations handbook for nonprofit organizations, and edited The World Under My Fingers, a book for parents of blind children about the importance of learning Braille, and So You Don’t See as Well as You Used to, pieces written by blind seniors for those losing vision.




                                                         V I T A 

                                                 Barbara Pierce

            Barbara Pierce was graduated from Oberlin College in 1966, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.  She majored in English with a certificate to teach at the high school level.

            Having been admitted to attend graduate school at the University of Chicago, she decided instead to marry her Milton professor and become a faculty wife in Oberlin.  The Pierces have raised three children. 

            While her children were small, Mrs. Pierce worked successively as a teacher of childbirth education classes to expectant parents, as the administrator of a religious community, and as a hospital chaplain.  She returned to work full‑time when her youngest child was entering third grade.  She served as assistant director of the Oberlin College Alumni Association for seven years, planning class reunions and coordinating on-campus programs to serve students.  In October of 1988 she left that job to become associate editor of the Braille Monitor magazine.

            Mrs. Pierce gradually lost her sight during her childhood.  She was introduced to Braille at the age of twelve and to the long white cane at sixteen.  She did not, however, become fully adjusted to blindness until her exposure to the National Federation of the Blind in 1974.  Its philosophy of independence and equality enabled her for the first time in her life to accept herself as a normal person who could not see, and not as one who needed to apologize for her alternative techniques.

 

            In 1974 Barbara Pierce organized the National Federation of the Blind of Lorain County, Ohio.  From 1978 to 2002 she served as director of public education for the National Federation of the Blind, and from 1984 to 2008 she served as president of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio.

 

Barbara pierce has been a member of the National Federation of the Blind since 1974. She was president of the Ohio affiliate for 24 years and worked as editor of the NFB's monthly, the Braille Monitor, for 15 years. 

 

she and her husband have raised three children, and they have 4 grandchildren. They now live in a retirement community in Oberlin, Ohio.

 

She enjoys knitting, reading, and volunteering for the NFB. She now serves as president of the NFB of Ohio Senior Division.

 

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