Robert Harris, Descriptive Transcript

[Descriptive transcript: video opens with a blue title card with the logo for the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing in center. Text on upper right corner: “40 years anniversary”. Video transitions to a black slide with white text: “The views and opinions expressed in this video are those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent or the State of Minnesota.” Video transitions to Darlene standing on stage next to a podium with the Commission’s logo on front A balloon arch is visible behind her. She signs.]

>> Darlene: We have an exciting program for you tonight. Our first presenter is a historian, Bob Harris. Dr. Bob Harris. 

[Audience cheers. Darlene leaves the stage while Robert Harris steps onstage and stands next to the podium. He signs.]

>> Robert: Hello, hello, everyone. Good evening.

Happy Anniversary. 

My name is Bob Harris. I have white hair, a white beard, glasses, and an all-black outfit. 

Now, I want to talk about the deaf community and Governor Rudy Perpich. 

The story starts when I told my great uncle, Judge David Bazelon, of the United State Court of Appeals, that I will be coming for a job interview with Dr. John Scanlan at St. Paul-Ramsey Hospital in 1975. He was excited and told his law clerk. His clerk, I just found out, was a brother of Governor Rudy Perpich. Cool! Could it mean that I might meet him? The brother told the Governor that I would be coming to St. Paul for a job interview. The Governor wrote a very nice letter welcoming me and said, please come and that Minnesota is a great place to live. Anything you need, I’m happy to help. That set up a warm connection between him and me. 

When I moved here, I met him 3 times. I wrote a total of 16 letters to him. I received 12 responses from him and his aides. Trust was established and opened new doors for deaf leaders, from then on. 

At the same time, something was going on in the deaf community. Deaf people were having social chats. Social chats led to a question whether there was a need to set up a Deaf leadership training. 47 deaf people were invited to Harry and Ruth Goddard’s house to discuss whether they should go ahead and set up the training or not? Many nodded “yes”. They suggested having 2 kickoff conferences to gauge Deaf people’s interest in leadership training. Responses were overwhelmingly positive. 

The Deaf leadership training committee was established. 27 deaf people were involved on this committee. They met 12 times. Eventually, they established Minnesota’s first Deaf Leadership Program in Brainerd, Minnesota on September 24-26, 1976. 

Two months later, the Deaf club at Thompson Hall hosted the White House Conference on Deaf Individuals. 97 Deaf people attended. Brainstorming sessions were conducted. They gathered 53 concerns and recommendations. A report was compiled, and copies were sent to the Governor, Minnesota State Council for the Handicapped, parent groups, and so on. 

And, then two weeks later, the Governor hosted a conference on handicapped individuals. Over 100 Deaf people attended. 

As a whole, the Governor showed a little understanding of what Deaf people needed. He called for an informal meeting with a few deaf people and asked them what they wanted to see. I said the Deaf community wanted a state commission. Why? I knew that Connecticut had a large commission and Texas had a commission. I gave the Governor this example: State Services for the Deaf at that time had a budget of $33,000. State Services for the Blind had 3 million dollar budget. That was a huge gap. The Governor was very surprised and embarrassed by that. 

At that time, talking about the Governor, he was the Lieutenant Governor. His boss, Wendell Anderson, resigned as the Governor to take Senator Walter Mondale’s position, because Mondale had become the new Vice-President under President Jimmy Carter. 

As a result, Rudy Perpich took over Wendell Anderson’s seat as Governor. In 1977, when during his inauguration, he arranged to have an interpreter to sign for him. What was impressive was that he told the interpreter to stand close to him, not telling her to stand far away from him. The Deaf community was thrilled to watch the interpreter signing nearby the Governor’s speech. That was an important moment!

My boss Dr. John Scanlan and I were working hard to improve the services for Deaf people. He attended meetings with the department heads of the DVR and Department of Public Welfare. He pleaded that they hire more Deaf professionals to work with Deaf people, but the department heads were not interested. They preferred to ask the Governor for funding for other projects. 

Dr. Scanlan was not happy about this and wrote a very good, in-depth letter to tell the Governor what the department heads had told him. The Governor was not happy to hear about this. He mulled it over and came up with an idea. He asked the State Planning Agency (SPA) for $100,000 for a 2-year study on Deaf people’s needs, and directed SPA to find an administrator to conduct the study. We asked the Governor to please hire a Deaf administrator. He said that would be fine and told the SPA to do so. 

Staff at SPA were nervous and wondered where they would find a Deaf person to run the study. They asked the Minnesota Foundation for Better Hearing and Speech to meet with Deaf individuals to figure this out, and Deaf people gave the SPA a lot of input. Finally, they found a person with a hearing loss, and his name was Dwight Maxa. You saw his face tonight on the screen. 

He needed people to work on the committee and brought on a total of 40 people. Later on, he realized that there were too many people. He preferred to reduce the number of people in the committee to 9¹. The committee needed to elect a Chair, and I nominated a Deaf person, Jerry Nelson. Another nomination came for a hearing person named Bob Lauritsen. He’d worked at the Program for Deaf Students at TVI back then. A vote was called, and it was a tie. Another vote, and again it was a tie. A third call for a vote ended in another tie. I raised my hand, though I had to fight through nerves, and said that it is time now for a Deaf person to run (chair) this committee. Finally, the vote passed. I later learned that Bob Lauritsen had voted for Jerry. That had helped to break the tie. Congratulations to Jerry. Where is he? There he is, hey Jerry. 

For your information, Governor Perpich was the one who signed into law our Minnesota Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He signed it in 1985. At that time, it was named the Minnesota Council for Hearing Impaired. The name has changed two times, and is now the Minnesota Commission for the Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing. A long name that we now abbreviate. 

I was also surprised to find out while reviewing some old files that in a 1985 government budget memo, it was proposed that the two state schools for the Deaf and blind in Faribault be closed. Reasons for this proposal were declining enrollment and increasing cost spent per student. People in Faribault rejected this idea, and they flocked to the State Capital to bark and shout, “No!” The Governor heard them loudly and clearly, he said, “OK” and withdrew the proposal from the budget. I applaud the Deaf community for that.  

Now, was that the end of his work with the Deaf community? No, there was more. He knew that the deaf community needed telecommunication access. He asked State Planning Agency for $50,000 to be awarded to MFBHS to study Deaf people’s telecommunication needs. At that time, Jerry Nelson conducted the study. It was passed and was signed into law. It had a long name: Telecommunication Access for Communication-Impaired Persons, abbreviated as TACIP. 

Doug Bahl, at this time, was working on a project about Olof Hanson who built Thompson Hall and a few houses in Faribault. Doug invited the Governor to come to Faribault to sign into law the new name of State Highway 299 as “Olof Hanson Drive”. How cool is that!

Fast forward to 2025. 40 years since 1985. 

We are here to celebrate the 40th anniversary. Two more events took place this year. On April 22, 2025, a new book was published about Governor Perpich, titled, “Perpich: A Minnesota Original.” I read the book and it was good. I give it a thumbs up 

Two after the book was published, the Governor’s wife, who lived until 94, passed away. 

1, 2, 3, 4…I wonder if it was God’s plan for the First Lady Lola Perpich to bring the book to show to Rudy in heaven? Maybe.

In conclusion, from 1975 when we had few services in Minnesota, such as DVR, the Faribault Deaf School, Deaf Club and TVI, to now, with so many resources all over the State of Minnesota. We have come a long way, but there’s still more work to come. I hope you all will work hard for another 40 years- to promote, and to preserve the rights of deaf people as first class citizens. 

Thank you.

[Applause.]

[Video transitions to a black slide with white text: “With deep appreciation to all presenters, community members, and everyone who has been part of the Commission for the past forty years. Looking forward to many more years of advocacy, hard work, collaboration, and making a difference to the quality of life of Minnesota’s deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing community.”]

[Video ends.]

1. This committee was the point of departure for the new Minnesota legislative act passed in 1980: Hearing Impaired Service Act.