2023 WSAD Lifetime Honorary Members
Laurence Schoenberg
Laurence, informally known as Larry, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1937 and raised by deaf parents. He had a deaf brother ‘Ricky’ who was born several years later. After attending Minnesota Academy for the Deaf for one year (1943-1944), he moved with his mother and brother to Bremerton to join his father who had begun to work at the naval shipyard one year before.
Larry was enrolled at the Washington School for the Deaf in 1944. After his high school graduation in 1958, he attended Gallaudet College (now University) and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 1963. [Below is his WSD senior picture when he received a free membership to WSAD after graduation and he is still with WSAD TODAY!]
After temporarily working for a deaf farm owner in Ritzville, WA, Larry secured employment with a bank as a data processor and eventually was promoted to the position as system programmer. After surviving several mergers, he retired from Wells Fargo in 1996.
Larry has been a WSAD member for over 50 years. During the 1970s and 1980s, he served as Treasurer and then as Trustee/Custodian and is currently serving as one of the Trustees. He has attended numerous WSAD meetings and conferences.
Larry was on the D.E.A.F. Board for 2 terms, a total of 6 years. He is an active PSAD member for many years. His hobbies are photography, reading and investing in the stock market.
He was married for 32 years to Joan (Rosen) who also attended from Gallaudet College and passed away in 2002. He has two daughters, Pam and Katrina.
Bryan Branson
Bryan Branson, a dedicated member of WSAD for 49 years, is a lifelong resident of Spokane, except for his time as a student at Gallaudet, where he met his beloved wife, Amy Branson. Following their time at Gallaudet, they both chose to make Spokane their home. They have two grown children whose names are Jennifer who lives in Corvallis, Oregon and Timothy Branson who lives in Ashburn, Virginia with his wife (Brittany).
A few years after graduating from Gallaudet, Bryan worked at Washington Trust Bank for one year and then at Hewlett-Packard Company for 18 years. Hewlett-Packard Company downsized, and he was let go. About 8 months later, Bryan got 4 insurance licenses and worked under Gary DeGuire at Farmers Insurance in Spokane.
Over the years, Bryan has been actively involved in WSAD, participating in numerous conferences, promoting his Farmers Insurance business at WSAD events, Senior Picnics, and Deaf Nation gatherings. He has also held various important board positions within WSAD and in Spokane, contributing to the success of EWSCDHH and IEAD.
For about 10 years Bryan served on Access4All in Spokane which developed a checklist of activities to inspect buildings and parking lots to make them more accessible to the disabled community.
Currently, Bryan serves as the President of the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Congress of the Deaf, a testament to his commitment to the Deaf community. Bryan has since retired from his insurance business but remains committed to assisting WSAD and the Deaf people.Bryan is renowned for his exceptional and humble leadership within the Deaf community of Washington State, leaving an indelible mark on its growth and development.
2019 WSAD Lifetime Honorary Members
We got the pictures from WSRID and we apologized if the pictures are dark. Howeve, we want to share the announcement of our three Lifetime Honorary members and one Volunteer of the Year awards with the community.
Words are hard to describe what each person did for the organization and for the community. Each of them made the time, the effort, the energy, the drive, the money out of their pockets, the miles on their car, so on and so forth … we want to say THANK YOU in a BIG way by recognizing each of you for all that each of you have done!
The awards was given on Friday night October 4th during our WSAD/WSRID conference in Seattle before the Deafies in Drag performance. The theme during that conference was “Make It Matter” and these people did make the community matter!
Allie Joiner
Allie Joiner attended Arkansas School for the Deaf. After 8 years there she transferred to Louisiana school for the Deaf in Baton Rouge. After taking 2 years of Algebra, she entered Gallaudet College in 1952. She graduated with a major in Education for the Deaf.
Allie taught at South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind in a small town, Spartanburg for 2 years and 6 years at New Mexico School for the Deaf. She taught for 5 more years at Colorado School for the Deaf. Even though she enjoyed the kids, she was not sure of staying in the field. She decided to try for a different career so she attended the University of Arizona and got her M.S. in Rehabilitation with Deaf Adults. She chose Seattle for her internship with DVR over St. Louis and Rochester. Allie might have ended up at NTID in Rochester but she disliked the snowy East and she thought of going up to Alaska at that time with Estie.
Fate changed when Seattle Hearing Speech Center offered Allie a job as a vocational counselor with Deaf Adult Services. Allie calls the days there as golden days as the work was rewarding. During that time she also was on the Local Evaluation Team as an RSC interpreter (same as CDI) She learned about lobbing in Olympia and shook hands with every Governor. Currently, Allie thinks Gov. Inslee has been very very supportive of our cause for quality education. During six years there she attended many workshops and became involved with Governor’s Committee of Handicapped and Employment Issues(old term) before it changed to GCDE
Allie decided to try for CSUN Leadership Training in the Area of Deafness in Northridge CA (1978) and was inspired by her Political Science professor who saw in Allie as an advocate. Allie was not sure if advocates would get paid in the 70’s – little she knew she would become the first paid advocate in Seattle for Hearing Impaired in 1980. Her first advocacy work was filing a complaint against the City of Seattle because she was discriminated against for that job! The rest is history.
Thanks to Deaf Services Coordinator, Leon Cutis for his proposal for community service centers for 4 centers (Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, and Spokane) Allie was involved in the long process obtaining Referendum 37 monies for CSCSDHH. After one year with Troubleshooters (Washington State Advocacy System), she worked as a Consumer Advocate in the Legal Advocacy Project at CSCDHH. Thanks to Temmie Brier, Legal Advocate, a wonderful mentor for Allie, Temmie would take her to many legal workshops. Twelve years at CSCDHH permitted her to travel all over the state supporting parents of Deaf children in making PL 94-142 work for them. NAD workshop on Section 504 was great, too. Allie attended many workshops on PL94-142, State Law Against Discrimination, and ADA.
After 12 years at CSCDHH Allie worked at Tacoma Coalition of individuals with Disabilities Center as Deaf Services Coordinator for 5 years before transferring to ADWAS for another 9 years as Community Advocate.
In December 2007 Allie retired only to accept a part-time job one month later at Deaf Blind Service Center as Senior Citizen Advocacy Specialist. She is still at it, going on 11 years. Everyone asks when she will FINALLY retire. She does not know, she will see how it goes. She is still on the board at WSD now called Center of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth (new name now that it is a state-level board).
As one of our oldest members, her numerous experiences and involvements have become so important to us young leaders. Thank you, Allie!
Larry Petersen
He missed getting his award before the Deafies in Drag performance and had gone home as he already saw them perform before so WSAD presented the crystal award to him during our business meeting and he was surprised!
Larry Petersen received the lifetime honorary member award from WSAD for his lifetime contribution to WSAD as well as to the Deaf Community at the local and state level. He has been a member of WSAD for nearly 60 years and continues his involvement with the WSAD Endowment Fund previously as a Trustee and currently as Custodian for over 30 years.
Larry was WSAD President for 6 years-1981-1987. He often went to Olympia for legislative hearings which positively impacted the welfare and rights of Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals in the state of Washington. During 1973, Larry was Chair of WSAD/WSRID legislative committee which eventually led to the passage of the bill requiring court/legal interpreting services for Deaf and H/H individuals.
Larry’s last administrative employment positions were Director of the Program for the Deaf at Seattle Central Community College for five years and Interim Superintendent of Washington School for the Deaf, his alma mater.
Larry enjoys socializing with family and friends, especially over a glass of wine. Larry’s hobbies are fishing, gardening, and reading.
As one of our oldest members, his experiences and involvements have become so important to us young leaders. Thank you, Larry!
Michael Izak
Michael has bee
n involved in many of our committees and meetings over the years. Being an attorney, he is instructional in providing much needed legal advice on our bylaws, our endowment fund and mutual funds, parliamentary procedures, and legal assistance voluntarily.
Michael Izak aka Mike to many of us graduated Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Washington School of Law. He clerked for Justice Charles Z Smith at Washington State Supreme Court for a year, then was accepted to the Washington State Bar in 1998 and to the Oregon State Bar in 2002. He is an experienced trial attorney, working on legal matters involving deaf and hard of hearing people in the last 22 years.
Thank you, Mike, for all your time in helping and working with us and for your legal advice!