History
The Tucker Maxon School was founded in 1947 by a Harvard-educated attorney, Paul Boley, whose daughter became deaf at the age of 18 months due to meningitis.
Initially, Paul Boley enrolled his daughter in the preschool program at Portland’s Hosford Public School for Deaf Children. At Hosford, he was introduced to instructor Alice Maxon who believed, “Deaf children can talk.” Boley dreamed of a small school in Portland where his daughter Barbara Ann and other deaf children could learn to speak. At the request of Boley, the then president of Cascades Plywood Corporation, Max Tucker sponsored the school during its earliest years.
Tucker Maxon has been ranked among the top schools in the country and valued for its innovative service and dedication to teaching children with hearing loss and children with typical hearing to speak, learn, laugh and sing together!
Historical Facts
1947
Tucker Maxon School is established by the Boley, Monnes, and Tucker families and Alice Maxon becomes the first instructor.
1948
Humble beginnings in a converted bedroom in the Boley home.
1952
Renowned architect Pietro Belluschi is hired to design the school’s first building.
1953
First classroom building, Tucker Hall, opens to 18 students.
1960
Tucker Maxon graduates its first class.
1963
Second classroom building, Smith-Bauder Hall, opens.
1963
Tucker Maxon board member Tom McCall becomes governor of Oregon.
1975
Tucker Maxon is one of the first private schools to be approved and registered by the Oregon State Department of Education.
1976
Founder Rose E. Tucker passes away. She served on the Board of Directors from the school’s founding until her death.
1976
Tucker Maxon begins offering early intervention services to families through the David DeWeese Hearing Center at Providence Hospital.
1978
The DeWeese Center moves to the Tucker Maxon campus.
1984
Peter Folkestad, a Tucker Maxon student, becomes the 96th person to undergo cochlear implant surgery prompting the school to become actively engaged in this new technology.
1985
Tucker Maxon establishes the world’s first school-based children’s cochlear implant center in conjunction with the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles.
1990
Tucker Maxon is named Program of the Year by the International Organization for Education of the Hearing-Impaired.
1990
Five school staff members publish Listening to Learn: A Handbook for Parents.
1991
Families and the community come together to rebuild after fire damages the main building.
1992
Cochlear implants gain approval by the FDA, enabling more children to receive them. Tucker Maxon Board member Dr. Alexander Schleuning begins performing cochlear implant surgery.
1995
Heather Whitestone, the first deaf Miss America, visits the school.
2000
Tucker Maxon becomes one of the first schools in the country to co-enroll hearing impaired and typical hearing children to learn together.
2006
Early Intervention returns to the Tucker Maxon campus from the Hearing and Speech Institute.
2012
Tucker Maxon celebrates its 65th anniversary.
2013
Tucker Maxon is evaluated by OPTION Schools Inc. and exceeds the organization’s standards for LSL schools.
2014
Tucker Maxon hires new Executive Director Glen Gilbert and Principal Linda Goodwin to lead the school.