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SUCCESS STORY:
HARRY SYLVESTER
Harry Sylvester grew up on a farm in northernmost Maine, a rugged,
rural country where the timber industry shaped the nature of community
life. These were the years of the Great Depression, but Harry
did just fine. From the very beginning, he showed a remarkable degree
of comfort and ability around anything mechanical. He operated farm
machinery even as a very young boy, and if something wasn’t
working the way it was supposed to, why, he’d just fix it!
Harry’s problems began when he entered the all-grades-in-one-building
country school at the age of six. No matter how hard he would
try, he simply could not make sense of the words on the page in
front of him. No matter how long he took, he couldn’t finish
the exercises he was assigned nor pass any quizzes. His teachers
— year after year, it turned out —came at him with exactly
the same expectations and instructions, regardless of their failures.
Instead, they would punish Harry, keeping him in at recess, making
him stand out in the hallway, effectively isolating him from every
one of his peers. Harry went through school an academic failure
and a social misfit.
His accustomed struggles and challenges took an odd turn when
he was finally passed along into high school. Now, when the
traditionally bright students began to fuss and fume over knotty
algebra problems, Harry shone. At first, he couldn’t understand
what was happening, he was so used to failing in class. Finally,
math and the sciences seemed to be written in languages Harry understood
well! Finally recognizing his formerly hidden intellectual potential,
his teachers issued passing grades in his language related classes
so he could go on to college.
That Harry did, earning a degree in mechanical engineering.
He earned something even more valuable during his college years,
too, the love and support — and lots of practical help with
reading and writing — of a wonderful woman named Janet Mayo.
Harry and Janet married after he finished his sophomore year. Thus
began a lifelong collaborative partnership that, among other things,
enabled Harry to succeed in a literate world.
Harry started a successful trucking business with a partner,
then sold out and worked as an engineer in the paper mills.
His success as an engineer was always tempered by his limitations
in literacy. As he says, “There is no place that the Peter
Principle kicks in faster than when a person in the workplace has
a learning disability.” Harry ultimately found his groove
designing and building fiberglass sailboats, ocean-going Whitehalls.
When Harry was in his early 50s, Janet ran across an article
in Reader’s Digest about dyslexia. It explained
a lot of Harry’s difficulties. Soon, they attended a joint
conference of the Maine Association for Adults and Children with
Learning Disabilities (ACLD, now LDA) and the Orton Dyslexia Society
(now International Dyslexia Association, IDA). “…for
the first time in my life I met other people that understood the
issues I was trying to deal with. It was a life-changing event for
me.” Harry had long thought he was the only one in the world
with these problems!
Harry formed support groups for young people with learning disabilities,
became involved in the LDA of Maine, and went on to distinguished
service on the LDA national board of directors, and as its treasurer.
In 1998-1999, Harry served two consecutive terms as President of
the Learning Disabilities Association of America.
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