Laurent Clerc
Deaf people in America respected Clerc and call him the "Father of the Deaf" because he founded the first school for the deaf in America in Hartford, Connecticut.  Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet founded that school on April 15, 1817 in an old hotel.  The school moved to its present location in 1821 and is now named The American School for the Deaf.  The American School for the Deaf is the oldest school for the deaf in the United States.