After a seven-month national search from a pool of more than 20 candidates, Rochester Institute of Technology has named Dr. T. Alan Hurwitz as vice president for RIT and CEO/Dean of its internationally known National Technical Institute for the Deaf. He will succeed Robert Davila, who is retiring, beginning December 1.
“I thank you for your support and vote of confidence,” Hurwitz told faculty members, students and the 16-member search committee.
Born deaf in Sioux City, Iowa, Hurwitz graduated from Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis in 1956. He earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Washington University at St. Louis and holds a master of science degree in electrical engineering from St. Louis University, and an Ed.D. in Curriculum and teaching from the University of Rochester. He also completed the Management and Leadership in Education program from Harvard Institute for Higher Education.
Hurwitz joined NTID two years after the college’s inception in 1968 and served in various roles as a teacher, counselor, and eventually Dean. Prior to arriving at NTID, he worked as an electronics engineer and numerical control programmer at McDonnell Douglas Corporation and he used his experience in teaching math, electronics, and computer science, and providing support services such as tutoring and academic advising to students majoring in engineering and computer science.
Hurwitz is active in a variety of professional and deafness-related organizations and serves on a number of boards of organizations serving deaf people, including the Rochester School for the Deaf and the National Captioning Institute. He served as president of the National Association of the Deaf from 1982 to 1984, is a member of AT&T’s Consumers Strategies and Issues Council, and formerly served on the board of the American Society of Deaf Children and the Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc.
Hurwitz, born profoundly deaf and the son of deaf parents, is married to Vicki, who is the director of the Outreach Center at Rochester School for the Deaf. They have two grown children and two grandchildren.
