Laurent Clerc

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This biography may need cleanup. Please review the Manual of Style for biographies and help improve the article. (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Laurent Clerc
Teacher, co-founder of the first permanent school for the Deaf in North America.
Born	(1785-12-26)December 26, 1785 La Balme, France
Died	July 18, 1869(1869-07-18) (aged 83) Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Spouse	Eliza Crocker Boardman (1792–1880)

Louis Laurent Marie Clerc (French: [lɔʁɑ̃ klɛʁ]; 26 December 1788 – 18 July 1869) was a French teacher called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" and was regarded as the most renowned deaf person in American Deaf History. He was taught by Abbé Sicard and deaf educator Jean Massieu, at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets in Paris. With Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, he co-founded the first school for the deaf in North America, the Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, on April 15, 1817, in the old Bennet's City Hotel, Hartford, Connecticut. The school was subsequently renamed the American School for the Deaf and in 1821 moved to 139 Main Street, West Hartford. The school remains the oldest existing school for the deaf in North America.