Valentin Haüy
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Valentin Haüy (13 November 1745 - 19 March 1822) was the founder of the first school for the blind.
Haüy was born into a family of weavers. His father, a full-time loomer, also held the job of ringing the Angelus bells in a local Premonstrant Abbey. The abbey monks educated Valentin and he became a skilled linguist speaking ten different languages of the day. He also studied ancient Greek and Hebrew.
Haüy's need to help the blind reached an all-time high in 1771, after he stopped for lunch in a cafe on the Place de la Concorde, Paris. There, he witnessed an ensemble of people from the Quinze-Vingts hospice for the blind being mocked during the religious street festival, "Saint Ovid's Fair". They were given dunce caps, oversized cardboard glasses and told to play their instruments which resulted in a cacophony of noises.
In 1783, he gained the title "interpreter to the king", Louis XVI.
He is buried in the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris.
Valentin's brother was the mineralogist René Just Haüy.
