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Lottie Riekenof

There is a lot you could say about Lottie Riekenof, she is a truly humble person who has accomplished a lot of things in her life that has impacted many. She has a can do will do attitude and was never afraid to try new things work hard. Here is Lottie’s story, information gathered from different interviews with Lottie and well as letters written to her. Lottie was born in Germany and moved to America when she was three years old. Lottie spoke German in her home all the time, and English out side of her home. Lottie was encouraged by her parent sot be bilingual. Which she is very great full for that to this day. When Lottie Riekenof was 25 she met a Deaf women when she working at a Calvary gospel church in Washington D.C. the Deaf women taught her some signs and they would talk by writing things back and forth. The woman encouraged her to learn ASL by taking a class at Gallaudet University. Lottie was the kind of women that just went with the flow and took on new challenges often so she decided she would do it. After completing the classes Lottie was invited to Central Bible College and that is where Lottie started teaching the first credited sign language classes. During Lottie’s time at the Central Bible College she taught many students and influenced many lives. In fact Lottie remembers the exact number of students that she taught to this day. Her main goal while teaching was to make youg people more aware of deafness and deaf people, and she accomplished this goal with most of her students. Lottie also created a sign language book that is still used to this day. She later helped to make other sign language books as well. Lottie earned her bachelors degree while teaching at Central Bible College and later went on to get her masters degree and PH.D from New York University. Her German came into play her because she wrote about it in her dissertation. Lottie’s education helped her to become a good interpreter as well as a good teacher for Deaf and the hearing. Lottie helped to write the first curriculum for interpreters. She helped come us with the curriculum and then gave it all to Gallaudet University. Others like Dr. Shine helped to develop the curriculum as well. Lottie eventually became the Dean of Women at Gallaudet. They called her and asked if she would take the position. Lottie never had to interview for that job. Eventually colleges started to get rid of the Dean of Women positions and that is when Lottie became part of the sign language department. The college did a lot of interpreter workshops and classes that Lottie was involved in to help teach others on how to interpret as well as learning sign language. In 1987 Lottie became the interim chair of the Department of Communication Arts. And then in April of 1990 Lottie retired. Lottie influenced the life of many interpreters as well as Deaf people from the time she started working to the time she retired. She is still an influence for many today.