Genevieve Caulfield (May 8, 1888 – December 12, 1972) was a blind American teacher, who started a school for blind people in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. Born in

Suffolk, Virginia Suffolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as such has no county. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,324. It is the 9th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia by boundary land area as ...

,Shavit, David (1990). ''The United States in Asia: A Historical Dictionary'', p.87. Greenwood Publishing Group. she lost her sight in an accident when a doctor put the wrong drops into her eyes when she was two months old. She went on to attend Overbrook School for the Blind and Columbia Teachers College. Since her youth she had dreamed of becoming a teacher to help create a better understanding between Japanese and Americans. Her dream came true in 1923, when she went to Japan, where she taught English for a living as well as

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

to blind students. In 1938 she opened the Bangkok School for the Blind, partly financed by her own savings, after she learned that blind children were considered useless in Thailand. Resisting repatriation during World War II, she stayed in Bangkok and continued to work for her school. From 1956 to 1960, she organized a school for the blind and a rehabilitation center for boys in

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. There is a statue in her honor at the school in Bangkok which still exists today. Her autobiography ''The Kingdom Within'' was published in 1960.

Recognition

In 1961, Caulfield was awarded the

Ramon Magsaysay Award The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino: ''Gawad Ramon Magsaysay'') is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealis ...

for International Understanding. On 6 December 1963, she received the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merito ...

from President John F. Kennedy in recognition of her work for the blind in Asia. The award was given by President Lyndon B. Johnson in honor of President John F. Kennedy. Her niece was actress

Joan Caulfield Beatrice Joan Caulfield (June 1, 1922 – June 18, 1991) was an American actress and model. After being discovered by Broadway producers, she began a stage career in 1943 that eventually led to signing as an actress with Paramount Pictures. In th ...

.Caulfield, Genevieve. "The Kingdom Within". Harper, 1960

References

1888 births 1972 deaths 20th-century American educators American blind people Ramon Magsaysay Award winners Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients {{US-edu-bio-stub