Robert Panara

Robert F. Panara (July 8, 1920 to July 20, 2014) was an American poet, professor and co-founder of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) and the National Theater of the Deaf, and is considered a pioneer of deaf culture studies in the United States. He began his teaching career at Gallaudet College before moving to the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he helped establish NTID as a dedicated technical college for deaf students within a hearing university. He was also instrumental in founding the National Theater of the Deaf, helping create some of the first theatrical productions designed specifically for deaf actors and deaf audiences, work that opened performing arts as a serious field for deaf artists. His legacy is marked by a performing arts theater named for him at Rochester Institute of Technology, established in 1987, and a United States postal stamp issued in his honor in 2017.