Tributes for Carl Croneberg
The Washington Post and the New York Times wrote tributes to honor a deaf man named Carl Croneberg, who passed away on August 7 at the age of 92.
The articles explained that Croneberg worked at Gallaudet University and studied ASL in the early 1960’s with famed Gallaudet linguist William Stokoe. The two, along with colleague Dorothy Casterline, published a book in 1965, “A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles.”
The Post explained that the book “broke ground by cataloguing signs in a way the deaf community widely perceives them — by movement, form and gestured nuance — rather than alphabetically in spoken-word translations.”
The Post explained that Croneberg studied how everyday people used ASL in places such as New England and the Deep South and found that there were regional phrases that could be mapped geographically. Croneberg wrote that sign language was a part of “Deaf Culture,” which was a relatively new concept in the 1960’s.
The articles explained that Croneberg “offered the first-known published analysis of Black American Sign Language.”
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Croneberg was born in Sweden and graduated from Gallaudet in 1955 with a degree in English. He received his master’s degree in English from Catholic University and got a job teaching English at Gallaudet. That’s how he started his working relationship with Stokoe, who was the English department chairperson. Croneberg retired from Gallaudet in 1986.
He was recognized during Gallaudet’s commencement in May when he was awarded an honorary degree along with Casterline.
Croneberg leaves behind his wife Eleanor and three children.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/30/croneberg-deaf-asl-sign-dies/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/obituaries/carl-croneberg-dead.html