David Elson Bond (7th November 1943 – 23rd January 2013)

David Elson Bond who was well recognised internationally and domestically in the field of Deaf and Special Needs education, has died at the age of 69.

David Elson Bond was born 7.11.43 in Auckland, New Zealand to Merle and John Bond. He lived in Henderson with his two sisters.

Attended Henderson High School, Teacher training college and did a Masters at Auckland University. Subsequently he decided to train as a teacher of the deaf in Christchurch (as his uncle was profoundly deaf) and he obtained a Commonwealth Fellowship to train in Educational Audiology at Manchester University.

He met Margaret, his wife at Manchester as she was also training to become a teacher and they were married in Dundee on January 29th 1972.

David worked in the education department at the University of Nottingham and then returned to NZ as he was seconded back to Kelston school for Deaf children, Auckland.

He quickly joined the educational psychologist team at Kelston and worked in Chirstchurch and Auckland as a specialist Educational Psychologist.

They returned to Durham University, UK and then started as an as Educational Psychologist at The Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate.

David began to be heavily involved in the Sense services for children and was involved with the Children’s Special Interest Group, continuing development of provision for Deaf Blind children and aiding the Sense International’s professional development course.

David visited Romania immediately after the Revolution, being involved in the programme run by the British Red Cross. In the discussion with some Romanian authorities he kindly offered to assess some of the children in the schools for the Blind and Schools for the Deaf in Romania and found out lots of Deaf Blind and MSI children in both types of schools. David was one of the professionals who made the recommendation to Sense International to consider some work over there, improving the lives of thousands of children. After a time, David was invited as a key note speaker to one of the national conferences organised for the benefit of all the teachers for special needs in Romania.

David also visited the Lebanon, Mongolia, Cyprus, Malta, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Ireland, Cambodia, Malawi, Russia and numerous other places over the globe all in the furtherance of the education of Deaf and Deaf Blind children.

Subsequently he became the Principal and Director of the Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate and Westgate College (one of the largest Deaf educational establishments in Europe). Many thousands of children and their families passed through Margate and were supported and helped by David, as it was an issue which was close to his heart.

Upon his retirement together with Doreen Woodford and other like-minded professionals he established the Woodford Foundation. David set up from scratch the Foundation’s work in Malawi, making extended visits there and establishing the first programmes, quickly winning the trust and respect of their future partners. Even though suffering a substantial amount of ill health in recent years, his commitment to the work saw him continue to support activities in Africa through Woodford Scotland, as well as his long-standing relationship with friends and colleagues in Lebanon and Jordan.

David Bond is survived by his wife Margaret of 40 years, his son Toby and his two grandchildren Julia and Sarah. He is greatly missed.