Anne Sullivan

The young woman who was Joanna (Anne 'Annie') Sullivan Macy is later known for her extraordinary work as the teacher of the famed deaf-blind author, political activist and lecturer, Helen Keller. In 1887, Anne Sullivan, a former student of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, was recommended by the institute to be the governess for six-year-old Keller.

With no formal educational training, twenty-year old Sullivan was able to teach the deaf-blind Keller to read and write and attend school. Through Sullivan's instruction, Keller became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904. Sullivan served as both a support companion and life-long friend to Keller until she passed away in 1936. While she taught no other child or adult in her teaching career, her innovative methods in deaf-blind education were quite remarkable and are studied upon by scholars of education to this day.