Gianni DiCrosta / Roundup
Norman Crozer can remember one person who changed his life.
An interpreter.
“I was a student at CSUN and I was taking a class with a deaf student,” he recalls. “I had never shared a class with a deaf person.”
Over the course of the class, Crozer befriended the deaf student.
“One day, [the student’s] interpreter told me I should be a teacher of the deaf, and I thought she was joking. It took me a minute to understand that she was dead serious.”
Crozer, who is now Pierce College’s Director of Special Services, took the recommendation seriously. He became the first person in a budding program at the university to create a teaching program for the deaf.
The Valley native originally planned on becoming a computer programmer. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from CSUN before receiving a master’s degree in special education with an emphasis on teaching.
He attained a position in Pierce’s brand new Special Services program in 1974 after teaching high school for four years. In 1984 he became its director.
June 30 will conclude his last full time year on campus.
Crozer will still have minor duties in the Special Services Office. He plans to stay for another couple of years teaching the occasional class and helping his former employees.
However, he is still excited to take much needed time for rest and relaxation with his wife.
“I’ve always wanted to go to the Panama Canal,” he said. “Hopefully that will be the first of many vacations.”
Vacation plans aside, Crozer is not prepared to give up his services for the deaf.
“One of the things I’ve been doing [in my spare time] is writing my own computer software for my deaf students,” he said. “I want to get more into that.”
Crozer has already developed a project that translates textbooks into American Sign Language.
While he admits that his top position deals with several sensitive cases and hard work, Crozer knows he has a strong team behind him.
“It’s part of my job, but it isn’t just my job,” he said. “It’s all of our jobs.”
With summer vacation fast-approaching, Crozer can’t help but reminisce on the little things he may have taken for granted during his 40 years of education.
“Basically, I want to smell the roses,” he said. “If that means playing on the Internet, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Norman Crozer attained a position in Pierce?s brand new Special Services program in 1974 after teaching high school for four years. In 1984 he became its director. ()
