Nelson Luther Treece (2011)

TREECE, BERTHOLF

Posted By: Shirley Keating (email)
Date: 8/5/2011 at 21:03:20

Campbell-Lewis Funeral Home
Sweet Springs, Missouri

In Memory of Nelson L. Treece

Nelson Luther Treece died March 31, 2011, at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. He was 61.

Nelson Treece was born August 10, 1949, in Los Angeles, California to Joseph Leonard and Jane (Berthoff) Treece. Nelson was named for his maternal grandfather Nelson Berthoff and his paternal grandfather Luther Martin Treece.

Nelson and his mother were baptized at the First Presbyterian Church in Winterset, Iowa on September 13, 1953.

He grew up in Southern California including Los Angeles, Pasadena, and San Gabriel. A teenager in the 60s, Nelson was recognized by his trademark pair of round, wire, John Lennon-like eyeglasses which he wore well into adulthood.

Nelson graduated from Pomona College in 1971 and was awarded a scholarship to Princeton to study linguistics with special emphasis on philosophy and the classics especially Old and Middle English language. He earned a Masters of Arts from Princeton in 1973.

Following Princeton, Nelson immersed himself in deaf culture at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the premier university for the education of deaf students with an international reputation for the research it conducts on the history, language and culture related to deaf people.

He knew a lot about spoken language, but not a lot about unspoken language, said Polly J. Earl, Ph.D., a friend and colleague. What a better place to learn sign language than Gallaudet.

Deaf education remained Nelson s primary discipline and singular focus for the rest of his life. Nelson earned a Masters of Arts in Education at Gallaudet and began his student teaching in 1979. Although not deaf, colleagues cite his command of American Sign Language as instructive for hearing and non-hearing students alike.

He was a beautiful signer, said Earl. His whole body moved just like a native signer.

Nelson became an assistant professor at Gallaudet and eventually served as chair of Gallaudet's English Department. While at Gallaudet, Nelson authored the abstract Use of the Cloze Procedure to Measure Reading Comprehension and Language Ability of the Deaf in 1989 challenging the use of the Cloze Procedure a fill-in-the-blanks activity used to measure reading ability in non-hearing impaired students in deaf students.

In 1990, Nelson was accepted as a doctoral student at Harvard University's Department of English. The pinnacle of his professional education, Nelson graduated from Harvard with a Ph.D. in English at a ceremony attended by his father Leonard in 1993.

Recognized for his fine ear, colleagues say Nelson Treece was an exceptionally good teacher. He loved to teach and he loved being around students wanting to learn, said Jane Freiburg Nickerson, past chair of the Gallaudet English Department. Indeed, Nelson was a trusted advisor to students of all ages including deaf children in pre-school and eleemosynary education, college students, and doctoral candidates.

Nelson finished his career at the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing as a public school outreach consultant and Teacher of the Deaf. His advocacy for deaf children was embodied in beautifully written reports and academic case studies. Nelson had a passion and consuming interest in children who were deaf and hard of hearing, said Earl. And to make sure they received the education they deserved.

Nelson enjoyed genealogy and a lifelong bond to his family homesteads in Missouri and Iowa nurtured by regular visits to the Treece and Berthoff farms, respectively. After hearing his mother's native Dutch language as a child, Nelson chose to teach himself Dutch. He read Dutch for pleasure.

With a great wit and sense of humor, Nelson enjoyed word puzzles and playing with words. He was a voracious reader. He just adored language and languages, said Earl. He just loved people.

Nelson L. Treece is survived by his first cousin William L. Treece and his wife Marjorie; their three sons Russell, Robert, and Brian; and their families. He was preceded in death by his mother in 1978 and his father in 1994.

Funeral Services will be held on Monday, at 11:00 a.m., April 11, 2011, at Campbell-Lewis Chapel in Sweet Springs. Visitation will be held from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. Monday at the funeral home. Nelson will be laid to rest in Fairview Cemetery in Sweet Springs, Missouri near his paternal grandparents Luther Martin and Ida Mae (Leonard) Treece. Friends may sign the online register book at www.campbell-lewis.com

Memorials may be made to the Gov. Baxter School for the Deaf Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Foundation.