One thing i was fascinated with this story is that the houseparent (Mr Friend) was deaf, Robert Oates was the quarterback of his football team (if this was hearing team, wow thats great), and then he was successful with his sandwich shop and later Richmond Auto Court. The Boys Town was in Richmond Virginia but Milton Hershey went visting there, maybe he met these deaf boys. Let me know what you think of the links i sent to you. Thanks!

“The Board of Trustees then hired Mr. and Mrs. C. T. Friend. They ran the “Boys Home” as a family. The boys like them a great deal. They were very attentive to the boys needs such as school, church, health needs, and the boys’ real parent input.

Mr. Friend was totally deaf but he had a sense of feeling that when something was going on, which should not, he showed up, and put an end to it.”

“Robert Oates played football on the Boys Home team. He was totally deaf but still wanted to play. Coach Carlton and Mr. Saunders made him quarterback. They worked hard to teach him how to pass the ball but he learned very fast and became a very good passer. During a game, when he wasn’t on the field, Coach Carlton asked him what he would have done on a play. Robert replied, ” I would have moved further up on the bench so I could see the play”. After leaving the Home, Robert opened a sandwich shop just off Broad Street then later moved it next to the National Theater. He did very well in this location. He and Willie Moore joined a partnership and purchased the Richmond Auto Court where Mr. W. L. Carneal, who was Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Richmond Home for Boys ate most of his evening meals. The Richmond Auto Court was valued at more than one million dollars!”

“During World War II, I took my family to visit my wife’s relatives in Hershey, PA. My wife was a relative of Mr. Milton Hershey and when I met him he told me the history of making chocolate products. I told him all about my stay at the Boys Home and asked him why he called his home for boys “The Boys Industrial Home”. He explained that he was training the boys to work in the Hershey factories. He was very interested in hearing about the Richmond Home for Boys and asked me to send him the names and addresses of the boys in the military. After the war was over, some of the boys told me that they received a box of Hershey chocolates.”

I found a link — it has some deaf people and about Milton Hershey, Is that what you were asking about?

http://www.boyshome.org/NewsletterArchive/The%20Walter%20Booking%20Story%20Archive%20Copy.htm

gwlj

That could be possible about one deaf “oralist” individual, who happened to be hired thru the industrial school. Who knows?

Kennywood amusement park in Western Pennsylvania was a popular gathering site for deaf people from the 30s to 80s.

Robert L. Mason (RLM)

Joshua Womick