On this date: The First Gallaudet University President Died

Edward Miner Gallaudet served as president (1864–1910) of the school that would become Gallaudet University.

Edward was the youngest of eight children born to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. He died on this date, Sept. 26, in 1917. When plans were made to change the name of the school from the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, Edward Miner Gallaudet wanted the honor to go to his father, as a pioneer in deaf education, rather than to himself. So the school was renamed Gallaudet College.