95: Morris Frank

95 years ago today (January 29, 1929) Morris Frank founded the first Guide Dog School in the US.

Morris Frank, himself blind, founded The Seeing Eye in Nashville, Tennessee. Frank had brought the first U.S. Seeing-Eye Dog, Buddy, into the U.S. from Switzerland.

January 29th is National Seeing Eye Dog Day. Seeing Eye Dogs are service dogs specially trained to be the eyes for their visually impaired owners. Typically, Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds are chosen as Seeing Eye Dogs, since these breeds are capable of complex training, and staying calm and focused when necessary.

Frank worked with Buddy until her death in 1938.

Between 1928 and 1956, Frank, as The Seeing Eye's Vice President, traveled throughout the United States and Canada, spreading the word about The Seeing Eye and the need for equal access laws for people with Guide Dogs.

He met with U.S. President Herbert Hoover in 1930 and with U.S. President Harry Truman in 1949.

Between 1954 and 1956 alone, Frank met with 300 Ophthalmologists and met with Seeing Eye graduates in all 48 States and throughout Canada.

Frank constantly championed for the right to be accompanied by his Guide Dog. In 1928, Frank was routinely told that Buddy could not ride in the passenger compartment with him; by 1935, all railroads in the United States had adopted policies specifically allowing Guide Dogs to remain with their owners on trains, and by 1939, The Seeing Eye informed the American Hotel Association that the number of hotels that banned guide dogs from the premises was small and "growing smaller constantly".

By 1956, every State in the country had passed laws guaranteeing blind people with guide dogs access to public spaces.

Frank retired from The Seeing Eye in 1956, at age 48, to found his own insurance agency in Morristown.

He died on November 22, 1980, at his home in the Brookside section of Mendham Township, New Jersey.