Ann L. Wiley | STC Fellow
STC Fellow Andrew (Andy) Malcolm passed away 4 September 2017. For 29 years, Andy taught English at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He also served on the Zoning Board of Appeals in Henrietta, NY, and the board of IRT Theater, a laboratory for independent theater in New York City that provides opportunities for deaf performers and audiences. Andy was active in the Society for Technical Communication, having joined in the Los Angeles Chapter in 1964, and the IEEE, where he was a life-long member. He also served as president of the Teachers of English and Language Arts special interest group of the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf.
Andy earned diplomas in electricity in 1948 and 1950 from Saunders Trades & Technical High School and Westchester Community College in New York. He then worked as an electronics technician, design engineer, chief draftsman, and quality control administrator. Andy’s first experience in technical writing came when he was asked to write parts of an instruction manual for equipment he was designing. Beginning in 1957, he was an engineering writer in the military and aerospace electronics industries. He returned to college and received a BS and MS in printing (1971, 1977). Between 1972 and retirement in 2001, he taught engineering and science English at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He also taught technical writing for the RIT College of Continuing Education and College of Liberal Arts and the Greece (NY) public schools.
Andy was a founding member of the Special Needs Committee of STC in 2001, which later became the Accessibility SIG. STC members recall Andy at many annual conferences. His good humor and kindness added to the lively gatherings. Rochester Chapter members recall his cheerful presence and support of newer members. At NTID, he was the unofficial historian and raconteur of the English department.
In his teaching, Andy developed multi-level reading comprehension curricula for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and was a pioneer in integrating technology into classroom teaching. He applied electronics to teaching English to the deaf using the synchronous display of print with speech sound. His teaching methods were based on extensive research. Andy’s work was published in American Annals of the Deaf and Teaching English to the Deaf and Second Language Learners and in STC journals. Andy received many awards for writing, including awards from STC and the Gannet Newspapers’ Golden Pen award.
On the STC Special Needs Committee, Andy focused on deafness and hearing impairment. His 2002 presentation “Deafness, an Introduction” provided insights into challenges of deafness in being a technical communicator and into using simplified grammatical structures that are needed by prelingually deaf people and make reading easier for everyone. Andy also held several local and national offices in STC, including Secretary of the Society (2002–2004). The Rochester Chapter has published recollections of Andy’s service to the chapter (http://stc-rochester.org/andy-malcolm-memoriam/).
In 2003 Andy considered researching aging for a Special Needs SIG paper, but decided instead to share personal experiences about aging. When Andy was five years old, his father died, so he learned the terminal nature of human life early on. Reflecting that life is engaging—tomorrow follows today, he noted the last act ends in death. He reports his first irreversible injury, an incisor broken while playing football in high school. He good-naturedly reports losses at 40, 50, 60, and his mid-sixties. In his seventies, Andy stayed in touch with long-time STC leaders enjoying active retirements. He reflected that he could “only extrapolate the future.” For the last sixteen years, Andy was known as Santa Andy at Hansen Nature Center, Hochstein School of Music, and Andrus, where he lived as a teenager. Andy is survived by his wife, Kathleen Crandall, four children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandson. Donations in his memory may be sent to Andrus, 1156 N. Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701.
