When Gilbert L. Delgado was 5 years old, he witnessed an event that would have a profound effect on his life.

"I was playing in a cornfield with some of the kids from the Valdes family near Canyon Road when I heard this sharp shriek that scared the heck out of me," said Delgado, 83. "The sound was coming from their grandmother who was deaf and was calling her grandchildren to come home for lunch. She always wore black and had long, white hair, so at the time it was scary. Yet even then I was intrigued by the way she was able to communicate. Years later, when I was doing my graduate work at Gallaudet University, I learned that Grandma Mae Thorton Valdes had been a student there."

In addition to getting his master's degree from Gallaudet -- the nation's first institute of higher learning for the deaf and hearing impaired -- Delgado served as dean of its graduate school and taught psychology and history. During his tenure, he instituted five master's programs and one doctoral program.

In 1969, Delgado received his doctorate in educational technology from Catholic University and went to work for the U.S. Department of Media Services and Film Captioning. While there, he became involved with the creation of media devices, including visual captioning for television and movies. "With today's technology, deaf people have so many ways of communicating. But even when I began my career with few resources available, I found deaf people to be a very close-knit, resourceful group. No matter where they went, they were able to communicate," he said.

During his 40-year career working with the deaf and hearing-impaired, Delgado traveled the globe as their advocate, and spearheaded international deafness resource centers at universities in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. In 1988, Delgado came to Santa Fe to work at the New Mexico School for the Deaf and became the first -- and to this day the only -- Hispanic superintendent of a school for the deaf in the nation.

Gilbert L. Delgado was born in Santa Fe in 1928, one of four children born to Hilario Delgado and Ursula Apodaca, both of whom have deep roots here: The family can trace its heritage back to Capt. Manuel Francisco Delgado, who came to this area from Pachuca, Mexico, following the pueblo revolt of 1696. Delgado's younger brother, Larry, served two terms as mayor of Santa Fe, from 1998 to 2006.

Delgado was married for 53 years to Cecilia Ortiz, who died in 2001. They have six children, 22 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Delgado attributes his strong background in education to the Christian brothers at
St. Michael's College, who instilled in all of their students a high respect for the importance of education. "I attended St. Michael's College from first through 12th grade and then received my undergraduate degree, also from St. Michael's," he said.

In 1953, Delgado joined the Marines and was stationed in the Mariana Islands for two years. When he returned to the states, he served five more years in the reserves.

His retirement in 1994 didn't slow him down. He became very active in the community. He serves as a board member on the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp. and as chairman for the Santa Fe Sister Cities Program. He was a member of the College of Santa Fe board of trustees for
15 years and is a member of the Elks and the VFW. In 2003, he wrote The Industrious Humanist, a book about Fray Pedro Ponce de Leon (1520-1584), who is credited with being the first teacher for the deaf.

Delgado relishes being back in his hometown after living in Maryland and California for more than 25 years. "I grew tired of the fast pace. Santa Fe is a more civilized place to be," he said.

When he's not busy helping out in the community and working on academic pursuits, Delgado enjoys taking road trips in his favorite mode of transportation. "While raising six children, we always needed a station wagon to haul the kids around, so in 2003 I decided it was time to do something for myself, so I bought a red BMW."

Ana Pacheco's weekly tribute to our community elders appears every Sunday. She can be reached at 505-474-2800.