Meet our Alumni

An ANZAC of the Year, Dr Pierre Gorman was an international authority on deaf communication who was committed to helping people with disabilities.

Born deaf, Gorman was taught to lip-read in English and French by his teacher Doreen Hugo and French expert Dr Henriette Hoffer. He later developed the ability to speak, giving lectures and public addresses. Gorman became the first student born deaf to graduate with a degree at The University of Melbourne, attaining a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and later a Bachelor of Education. He then studied the problems of children with disabilities with Dr Hoffer in Paris and in 1960 became the first deaf-born person to complete a Doctorate at the University of Cambridge.

From 1957 he worked as head of library services at London's Royal National Institute for the Deaf. There he advanced the work of Sir Richard Paget to develop the Paget-Gorman sign system for deaf communication, which is based on normal patterns of English and has since been widely adopted.

He was appointed a Research Fellow and Lecturer in Special Education at Monash University, where he was involved in setting up work preparation centres to enable young people with intellectual disabilities to enter the workforce. In 1983 he established the Gorman Foundation to improve the relationship between individuals with a disability and the community.

The Library Board of Victoria awards the biennial Pierre Gorman Award in his honour to Victorian libraries that provide services to people with a disability. Gorman received the ANZAC of the Year Award in 1981 and the following year was awarded the National Medal for his service to the community. He was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1983 for services to the disabled. A Visiting Professor at Heidelberg University and the University of Alberta, he later received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Melbourne.