Louise Tracy - Recognition

Recognition

Louise Tracy was honored with many awards during the 1950s. These included the Hearing Advancement Award from the Lions Club Hearing Foundation in 1951, the Testimonial of Merit/Woman of the Year award from the La Sertoma International organization in 1953, and the Sixth Annual Award of the Save the Children Foundation in 1955.

Louise was also lauded in academic circles. In quick succession, she was granted honorary degrees from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, her alma mater Lake Erie College, and MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. In 1966, Gallaudet College, the liberal arts college for the deaf in Washington, DC, honored Louise with a Doctor of Letters degree. In 1974, she was granted a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. In 1976, Louise was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Ripon College, Spencer's alma mater, in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Louise Tracy's influence in governmental circles continued in the 1960s. In 1963, Louise was appointed to the Neurological and Sensory Disease Advisory Committee of the federal Department of Housing, Education, and Welfare (HEW). In 1965, she became a member of the National Advisory Board of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Henrietta, New York. Also in 1965, she was appointed to a four-year term as a member of the National Advisory Council on Vocational Rehabilitation. In 1969, Louise became a member of the President's Task Force on the Physically Handicapped.

The John Tracy Clinic continued to expand in the 1970s. In October 1974, Louise resigned as Clinic director due to ill health. However, the honors continued to roll in for Louise, whose "mothers' group" had become the largest single service provider to parents of deaf children around the world. In 1974, she was presented with the 1974 Award of Honor Otolaryngology and in 1975 the Father Flanagan Award for Service to Youth from the Boys Town organization. In 1977, Louise was given the Humanitarian Award by the National Auxiliary of American Veterans AMVETS.