Then Bill moved his family --- wife, son and daughter Susan --- to Wichita, where David was placed in the Institute of Logopedics.  Bill continued to work at Little Rock, making the drive as often as possible.  Little was achieved at the institute, and the family returned to Little Rock admitting defeat.  "We still hadn't latched on to the fact that the deafness was a problem," he recalled.

For four years, David attended Garland Elementary School, improving his written language skills and even making a B in Spanish.  Then, at age 10, David entered the Arkansas School for the Deaf --- the first break-through in his education.  There he met Theda Gatlin, the principal of the high school, who agreed to tutor him --- and continued to do so for some eight years.  She also took him to her farm in Traskwood once in a while to offer him the "normal experiences" of a 14-year-old boy.  He rode horseback, rode in the back of her pickup truck.  The two of them developed a close relationship, and David continued to grow.

When he graduated from high school, second in his class, his pre-college test score proved Mrs. Gatlin's theories about his potential as a Gallaudet student.  (Gallaudet is the only accredited arts and sciences college for the deaf, and was founded by Abraham Lincoln.)[*See note below]  Then his parents had to make the decision to move him to Washington --- a gut-wrenching choice for them, which they made by agreeing to hire boys to help take care of him.  "You can't imagine the emotional trauma of going off and leaving this kid by himself," Bill said.  His wife cried "the full length of the Blue Ridge Parkway," he recalled, as they drove away from Washington leaving David alone for the first time.

David made the adjustment slowly but steadily.  Fifteen credit hours proved too heavy a load so he settled for nine each term.  Walking from class to class was exhausting and threatened to harm his hip, so he moved to a wheelchair.  Friends and fellow students pushed him around campus then, helped him with errands and repairs.  Bill drove to Washington once a month to do his laundry and visit.

Finally the Gentrys invested in an electric wheelchair, which allowed David to move around campus without depending on a friend's locomotion; the boys that had been hire to care for him were dismissed and David learned to live on his own.

While he was at Gallaudet, David maintained his fierce interest in sports and politics, joined the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omege, and nutured new friendships --- despite the fact that he was the most hanicapped student there, the first to be enrolled with cerebral palsy, though others followed.

His graduation after eight years was a triumph impossible to exaggerate.

In addition to facing the emo­tional trials of raising a doubly-handicapped son, the Gentrys carried a staggering financial burden without hardship — something Bill credits entirely to heavenly intervention and not to his humble work with South­western Bell. Through the years, he said, the necessary money has come through in odd ways that he never questioned. Cere­bral Pasly funds could offer no aid — Bill founded Arkansas's first CP association. Both Bill and David take their faith seri­ously, and are regular members of the First United Methodist Church.

While David waits and pursues library job responsibilities, he also is enjoying his first spring free from school.  "Like all kids right out of school, he spends a lot of time in the sack," Bill said with a laugh.

It's a difficult transition period for David, moving back into a world of hearing people, away from the comforting atmosphere of a school full of students who spoke his language.  The teletype in his bedroom sits silent most of the time while his close friends from the Deaf School and Gallaudet, less hindered physically, move quickly into new jobs.  His books and typewriter fill the gap as David taps out letters to Congressmen, one key at a time, and absorbs more and more information on politics and history.

When he finally finds his job --- and both Bill and David are confident that some work will materialize soon --- David will be back among people again, making new friends with his wide smile and eager enthusiasm.  Then the transition and the isolation will be past.

Meanwhile, the two men talk as best they can and, when words fail, communicate their deep, bonding affection with a warm silence only one of them can hear.
Arkansas Gazette article of July 22, 1979 continues:
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* The author of the article is partially correct.

Abraham Lincoln chartered Gallaudet in 1864 authorizing the conferring of college degrees. 

The school was founded by "Amos Kendall, a Dartmouth-educated journalist, whose political acumen and connections led him in the late 1820s to Washington, DC. Kendall held several federal government positions, among them, postmaster general during the administration of Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. After leaving politics in his middle years, Kendall invested substantially in the newly-invented telegraph and, as legal manager and business partner of Samuel F.B. Morse, became quite wealthy.

In 1856, Kendall was one of many Washingtonians who were approached by a man soliciting donations to found a school for deaf and blind children in the area. This man had brought five deaf children from New York and recruited several deaf and blind children from among the local population. On learning that the children were not provided proper care, Kendall successfully petitioned the court to make them his wards. He donated two acres of his estate in northeast Washington, DC, named Kendall Green, to establish housing and a school for them. The school opened with 12 deaf and six blind students. "

Source: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/kdes/history.html