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1979
November: Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc. (SHHH), is founded and incorporated as a non-profit educational membership organization by CIA retiree Howard E. “Rocky” Stone of Bethesda, Maryland. The office of SHHH is the family room of the Stone home. Furnishings were donated by ASHA. Funding is donated by the Stone family and personal friends.
A brochure offers membership for $7.
The Wall Street Journal writes a story on Rocky Stone’s career and includes a small paragraph (5%) on the inception of SHHH. One hundred people from all over the world write for information and help with hearing loss.
A small article in Modern Maturity magazine about the new organization for hard of hearing people brings 2,500 letters of interest.
The induction loop is introduced by Rocky Stone in the Washington, D.C., Archdiocese leading to its introduction elsewhere in the metro capital area. Stone is chair of the Washington Committee on Ministry with Persons Who Are Handicapped.
1980
The first 12-page bimonthly Shhh Journal is published in July.
SHHH attracts members from 30 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and other countries.
SHHH welcomes its first chartered SHHH Chapter in Gainesville, GA.
Stone becomes advisor to the National Institute of Handicapped Research.
Stone testifies before congress on the problems of millions of Americans who are hard of hearing.
1981
Stone chairs a White House Conference on Aging and Hearing Loss (co-sponsored by American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), National Association of the Deaf (NAD), and A.G.Bell). The conference, the first of its kind, brings together a mix of consumers and representatives from government, industry, medicine and academia to identify hearing loss issues, reach conclusions, and make recommendations. Seven consumers attending return home committed to begin SHHH chapters in their states.
1982
SHHH adopts a goal: Make Hearing Loss an Issue of National Concern.
SHHH colors of green and white are adopted.
A Chapter Manual to assist organizers is completed by the first regular volunteer, Joan Kleinrock, who will become SHHH chapter coordinator. SHHH has 25 chapters.
July: SHHH News, a newsletter for leaders makes its debut.
Betty Bonvillian and Marjorie Boone begin what will be 17 years as weekly Wednesday volunteers at the SHHH National office.
Financed by Esso of Australia, Rocky Stone travels to Australia and SHHH gains international recognition with the establishment of a sister organization – SHHH Australia.
SHHH expands its National Advisory Board, its Professional Advisory Board, and gains a medical advisor, Dr. Howard House, president of the famed House Ear Institute.
ABC News features a three-part series of interviews with Rocky about SHHH.
SHHH joins with 27 organizations that make up the Council for Better Hearing and Speech Month (May).
October: SHHH is advisor to Bill Neill, producer of a three-part PBS TV series on hearing loss and noise, The Hurt That Does Not Show. Part I airs on 310 stations. Parts II and III air in 1984.
SHHH begins involvement with legislation to advocate for telephone compatibility.
1983
SHHH leases its first office at 4848 Battery Lane in Bethesda. With the addition of Carol Lingley and Pat Clickener, staff grows to four full-time volunteers. (Clickener has taken a one-and-a-half-year leave from a Chicago executive position in advertising.)
The official SHHH logo is designed and adopted (Fading SHHH letters represent fading hearing.)
SHHH is a featured story in The New York Times.
SHHH has 60 chapters and developing groups.
There are 10 members of the board of trustees.
Stone is the keynote speaker at the First Canadian Conference of Hard of Hearing People.
SHHH launches campaign to conserve the hearing of youth with a project titled Operation SHHH and publishes a 15 page special report on noise pollution.
SHHH leaders Stone and Clickener represent hard of hearing people on a variety of national agencies and organizations.
The groundwork is laid for a 13th National Institutes of Health the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)… and supported by the SHHH membership.
A feature article about Stone in Modern Maturity, “For Your Eyes Only,” draws hundreds of inquiries about SHHH.
Stone is elected to the board of directors of the Deafness Research Foundation (DRF).
1984
The first National Convention is held in Chicago in May. 450 people attend. Here, Pat Clickener becomes the first elected president of SHHH (succeeding Rocky Stone). Columnist Ann Landers receives the first SHHH Walter T. Ridder Award. A large number of attendees go home committed to starting chapters, so that by November SHHH has 122 chapters.
SHHH moves to larger offices at 7800 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda.
SHHH publishes Self Help in Action, a special pictorial report of the first fours years of National and chapter progress.
An SHHH Pen Pal Club for children with hearing loss is initiated and overseen by a volunteer.
SHHH publication sales begin with an information series of six pamphlets on assistive listening devices (ALDs).
Ann Lander’s advises readers with hearing loss to contact SHHH. The National office, with the help of many volunteers from local chapters, answers over 8,000 letters and welcomes 900 new National members.
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