Samuel Miller Lawton

Samuel Miller Lawton (November 12, 1899 – November 3, 1971) was an American educator, minister, radio host, and advocate for the blind who served as first chairman of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and co-founder and first academic dean of North Greenville University. He is the first person born blind to earn a Ph.D. in the United States, and one of the first blind Americans to serve as an academic administrator.

Early life and education

Lawton was born on November 12, 1899, in Estill, South Carolina, to Thomas Oregon Lawton Jr. and Bessie Miller Lawton. He was born with retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary condition that caused blindness; his younger brother was also born blind, while their sisters were unaffected.

In 1901, the family relocated to Greenville, South Carolina, in part so that Lawton could eventually attend the state's only school for the blind, located in Spartanburg. Lawton attended regular schools until age thirteen, then spent a year at Cedar Springs, South Carolina's school for the blind, where he learned Braille, New York Point, typewriting, and violin. He later attended the Furman Fitting School and Furman University, graduating in 1920.

After Furman, Lawton studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, earning a Graduate of Theology degree. There he met Roberta Alice Stockton, a student in the Women's Missionary Training Union program. The two married in 1924, and soon after began teaching together at Mars Hill College in North Carolina. Lawton went on to earn a master's degree from George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee, and later completed a Ph.D. there as well, defending his dissertation on the religious practices of the Gullah people of coastal South Carolina - research for which he attended more than 250 religious services and conducted numerous interviews. He received his doctorate on June 2, 1939, and is generally regarded as the first person born blind to earn a Ph.D. in the United States.

Career

North Greenville University

The Lawtons moved several times for teaching and graduate work (including stints in Arkansas and Nashville) before returning to South Carolina. In 1933, while Lawton was completing his doctoral dissertation, the principal of North Greenville Baptist Academy, Dr. Donnan, invited the family to live at the school in exchange for Lawton undertaking a special research project: a survey assessing whether the academy should become a junior college.

Lawton spent months traveling across South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, visiting junior college campuses and interviewing administrators. The resulting fifty-page report concluded that North Greenville's faculty was as qualified as that of many existing junior colleges. Presented to the trustees, the report led to a unanimous vote to begin junior college instruction. Lawton was elected Dean of Instruction, becoming the school's first academic dean. At the time, only one other blind person in the country held such a position at a college.

Lawton subsequently helped secure the school's academic credibility by persuading Coker College, Wofford College, and Furman University to accept North Greenville graduates, and by convincing the South Carolina Department of Education to formally recognize the school as a junior college. The first class graduated in 1936. Lawton later served as a member of the university's board of trustees.

Minister

In the 1930s, Lawton was ordained as a Baptist minister at Pendleton Street Baptist Church. He went on to pastor North Greenville Baptist Church (later Tigerville Baptist Church) and Tyger Baptist Church. He resigned from North Greenville Junior College in 1942 and from Tyger Baptist Church in 1946.

For over 20 years, Lawton hosted a weekly Sunday School program, International Sunday School, on radio station WSPA.

After leaving North Greenville, Lawton served as pastor of Cedar Springs Baptist Church and as chaplain and religion professor at the Cedar Springs Institute (the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind), where he served for thirty years. Beginning in 1950, he also taught religious-education and psychology extension courses for the University of South Carolina in the upstate region, and remained active in the Spartan Baptist Association in various leadership roles.

Advocacy for the blind

In 1944, Lawton founded the "Aurora Club," a monthly gathering for blind residents of Spartanburg County aimed at promoting their welfare. The organization expanded statewide, and in 1956 the Aurora Club of South Carolina became the state affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind.

Lawton became a leading advocate for the creation of a state agency dedicated to serving blind South Carolinians, testifying before the legislature that existing welfare programs were inadequate to help blind people achieve self-sufficiency. His efforts contributed to the South Carolina General Assembly's 1966 creation of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, which began operating independently of the state welfare department the following year. Governor Robert Evander McNair appointed Lawton as a member of the commission's first board, and he was elected its first chairman, where he served until his death. He was also active nationally with the National Church Conference of the Blind.

Death and legacy

Lawton died of a heart attack in 1971 in Ridgecrest, North Carolina.

Awards and honors

The Spartanburg Sertoma Club named Lawton as "Man of the Year," and he was a recipient of an additional "Man of the Year" award from the South Carolina Association of the Blind. He was also recognized in a citation from the South Carolina General Assembly.

North Greenville named its men's dormitory, Lawton Hall, in his honor the year after his death; the building was later demolished, but the university continues to commemorate his role as a co-founder, including through the naming of its provost's office.

In recognition Lawton's contributions, North Greenville established the "Sam and Alice Lawton Award," given annually to married students who contributed most to campus life.