Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-12
BLIND SINCE FOUR, BOY
COMPLETES FINANCE
COURSE AT UNIVERSITY
Victim of Dynamite Explosion
When But a Child, Harold
d. Howard Realizes His
Dream
HAILED FROM OKLAHOMA

For the siclt AT heart and discouraged,
| the man who never had chance" there
! is an object lesson in the case of Harold D.
| Howard VINO has completed his course in
! the Wharton School of the University Of
Pennsylvania and will receive a diploma
on June 10.
| Howard, n resident of the Pennsylvania
| Institution for the Instruction OF the Blind,
| has achieved his youthful ambition-real-
| lied the dream of his boyhood days--a coll
| lege education. terrible accident, an ex-
| plosion OF dynamite so shocking that How
ard seems loath to talk of 1t even now,
robbed him of his sight at the age of four
In his own peculiar way, the boy knew
what n college was He could not see n
campus, but when his Imagination was
stimulated by the stories of his more for
tunate playmates, he decided he would over
come his handicap. He went to a special ee.
mcntary school and learned to read by the
"Braille system" He was an unusually apt
pupil, but the average blind scholar seldom
dreams of attending n university, where
there are great crowds of youths who jostle
each other about and where blind man Is
in danger Of accidental injury There are
complicated rosters and constant change
Of Cl. ssruOms which confuse even the phys
ically normal individual.
But to Howard, who is now 81 years old,
these matters were not to be considered.
They were difficulties, to be sure, but in
Howards philosophy of life a difficulty is a
stimuant rather than n deterrent, some
thing that helps man-if he is n real man |
rather than hinders him, |
He came here from his home In Bartles- |
vile, Okla, n journey that would seem a |
formidable one even to a youth who could |
''see his way" When he was enrolled, |
after having completed the course at the
Central High School, students who had
less faith in Howard than he had in him
ipt cd hot ha fNag |
his college examinations.
The standard of the University was too
high for many man who could the
blackboards and peruse the textbooks. It
would be hard enough for him to study
economies and finance. German and his
tory even in an asylum for the blind. But
in a university where he could find no spe-
clal accommodations the feat was imposs-
BILE.
The accuracy of their judgment was
when Howard not only
passed his examinations but exceeded the
records of his sympathetic but skeptlcal
fellows He decided to carry a slate"
with him at all lectures. This slate. a part |
of the Braille system of education, is a card
IN which holes are pierced by metallic
pencil.
As the instructor lectured, Howard
punched" the slate, and soon took the
ectures so completely that he earned men,
)ership In the Theta Gamma Sigma hon
orary fraternity by his intellectual achieve
nents. Such membership is coveted by the
,est of students. His work in the senior
'ear was so successful that he was
from examination in every sub
ect in which that privilege Is possible,
IT'S optimism that made me get 7
hrough" said Howard today 81 can Just !
zee enough to see the bright side of every !
hing | believe in work-regular and con- :
tant work And have learned that there ;
as much pleasure in work as there is in :
he so-called amusements" In the same !
oom with Howard, when he reluctantly eX-
resssd himself, were Harry C. Hartman, a
,outh who was graduated several days ago =
rom the Brown Preparatory School, win
ling first honors, and Raymond L. Porter
Porter also lives al the Institution for
he blind at Overbrook, and he. too, will be
this month from the University
4 Pennsylvania. The story of his career
as interesting as that of Howard
Porter enjoyed his sight during boyhood.
lie had completed the third year in the en-
school Of the Oklahoma State Uni
enough, he halls from the
anne State as his fellow student, but never
net until their affiction brought them to-
ether.
At the end of his junior year Porter was
frered a position in connection with a
redging project near Daytona, Fla. The
was liberal that he decided
0 accept the Job and 10 return TO college
fter he had earned snug sum.
But his intentions were not to be fulfilled
here was an explosion on the dredge. and
yhen he left the hospital he was thankful
hat It was his sight and not his life that
ad been taken. Porter knew that en-
ineering was an impossIbility TO him there
fter.