BackToVietnam.net - About The Author

About the Author

Geoff Poor spent most of his professional life on the faculty of the Rochester Institute of Technology, but it took some time and quite a bit of meandering to get there.

He grew up in New York and Connecticut, and enlisted in the army immediately after high school. After getting out of the army at age 20, he attended Vassar College, graduating in 1974 with a B.A. Prior to his career as a professor, he did the following:

Served as an agricultural extension agent with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa
Was a professional musician in North Carolina and New York
Worked for the Clyde Beatty Cole Bros Circus, moving props and sets before and during performances
Hitchhiked all over the US and much of Mexico, Europe and Canada
Tutored inmates in a maximum-security federal penitentiary
Ran an after-school recreational program for inner-city children
Worked in a saw mill and a 7-11
Drove school buses and taxi cabs
Operated a forklift
Worked on construction crews and as a department store elevator operator
Conducted a research project on nursing home care
Spent six weeks traveling across the U.S. in a 1963 VW bus equipped with a wood stove/fireplace
Installed electrical appliances on sailing yachts in Santa Cruz, California.
Took community college classes in welding, electricity and American Sign Language
Graduated (A.A.S.) from the Seattle Central Community College Interpreter Training Program
Worked as an ASL interpreter in Seattle, New York and Maine
Was a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the Deaf in Bangor, Maine
Joined the faculty of the National Technical Institute For The Deaf (NTID), a college of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY, in 1983 as an instructor in ASL.

This is a partial list.

Geoff Poor retired from RIT in 2018 as Professor Emeritus.

In addition to teaching ASL, he authored four ASL dictionaries (two print -- one with flashcards -- and two online), and contributed significantly in the field of sign language skill assessment. In addition to his work at NTID, he consulted at schools and colleges all around the U.S., and in Holland, Switzerland, New Zealand and South Africa.

He lives just outside of Seattle with Joan, his wife of 43 years. They have three sons (a professional musician, a video producer, and a special agent in federal law enforcement), and three grandchildren. He has a part-time handyman business, plays drums in a pub band, and does storytelling.