George T. Dougherty

George T. Dougherty was born on January 4, 1860 in Franklin County, Missouri. When Dougherty was two years old he got sick. He had typhoid fever (MP4). He became deaf because of the fever. He went to school at the Missouri School for the Deaf.

After that he went to Gallaudet College. He got a Bachelor's degree. He also went to the Polytechnic School of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.  He studied chemistry (MP4) for two years. Then he got a Master's degree from Gallaudet College.

Dougherty became an assayer and chemist (MP4) at the St. Louis Sugar Refining company. He also worked for other companies such as the Vulcan Steel Works and the Deering Harvester Company. Later he started the National Smelting and Refining Company. His job was to test and study metal (MP4). After that he worked for the American Steel Foundries Company as the Head Chemist (MP4) and Metallurgist. This time it was a permanent job. He was very good at his job. Many other companies offered him a lot of money to work for them. He said no.

He communicated mostly through writing because he did not think reading lips was accurate. Dougherty wrote many articles. He was a very good writer. One paper he wrote was put into a textbook that many students studied.

He was a supporter of technical (MP4) education and worked to preserve (MP4) American Sign Language. He gave a lecture (MP4) in sign language about the discovery (MP4) of chloroform in 1913 and it is still saved at the Library of Congress.