Life Story about Winfield and his family
Winfield McChord, a son of deaf parents, graduated from Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky. He earned his Master’s Degree at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. He also pursued graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Virginia. His mother was a VSDB student and a classmate of several parents whose children were members of the VSDB classes of 1963, 64, and 65.
In his career, he has served as a classroom teacher (1963-66), and later as Principal (1967-69), at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton. He was this nation’s youngest Principal of a center school for the deaf upon his appointment in 1966-67 at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Romney. His daughter Shannon was born in Staunton April 8, 1968.
He returned to his home state in 1969 as Principal of the Kentucky School for the Deaf, where his parents graduated in 1935. In 1971, he became KSD’s Superintendent, the youngest Superintendent in the U.S. of a center school for the deaf. In 1978, his wife Charlotte earned a law degree and began a legal practice, serving the deaf.
After ten years in the front office of KSD, the McChords moved to Connecticut, where he served twenty years as Headmaster of the American School for the Deaf, the first school in his career where his parents had never been students, and he had no relatives on the staff or in the student body. One of the ASD teachers was VSDB’s Betty Roop Young. Mrs. McChord passed away January 3, 1999. He also served as Interim President of the St. Mary’s School for the Deaf (2001-2003) in Buffalo, New York.
He was the first licensed interpreter for the deaf in America (1973); he was the President of the Conference of Educational Administrators Serving the Deaf (1988-90); visiting professor at Huajhong Normal University in Wuhan, Mainland China (1990); President of the National Association of Private Special Education Centers (2000-2003); a member of the Bicentennial Celebration Committee of the school for the deaf in Paris, France; the host of the 1997 Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut; and he has interpreted for one U.S. Vice President (Gore) and two U.S. Presidents (Kennedy, Clinton).
He resigned as Director of the Georgia School for the Deaf a few years ago. He has since lived in Lexington, KY.
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