an honorary doctorate in honor of his contributions to the education of the deaf in Africa. Contributions to deaf education in Africa Foster had felt a calling to be a missionary since he heard a Jamaican missionary at a Sunday school class at Bethany Pembroke, his aunt's church, when he lived with her in Flint, MI. During his time at Gallaudet, he often visited Washington D.C.'s inner-city neighborhoods, where he would seek out young deaf African American children to serve as a prominent role model in their lives. Through this work, Foster realized his passion for giving black deaf people access to communication, education, and the Gospel. In 1956, upon learning that there were only 12 deaf schools in the whole continent of Africa, and those only in Egypt and South Africa, Foster established the Christian Mission for Deaf Africans (now called the Christian Mission for the Deaf), a missionary organization whose goal was to bring education to every deaf African. He began his work in 1956 by convincing school officials to let him use their classrooms after hours to teach the deaf. After going on a series of speaking tours around America to raise funds for his cause, Foster arrived in the capital of newly independent Ghana in 1957. Prior to Foster's mission, there were no records of any programs, schools or teachers for deaf Ghanaians—there was not even a record of a formal signed language before he arrived, although there seem to have been village sign languages. In his initial missionary trip, Foster discovered that the treatment of deaf people in Ghanaian culture (as with disability in general) was so oppressive that parents often hid their deaf children at home or abandoned them altogether. He found a public school in Accra willing to allow him to use their facility after hours, and after some months 53 deaf people joined Foster's makeshift program. This became the Ghana Mission School for the Deaf, the first school for the deaf in West Africa. Foster acted as its director until 1965, expanding the size of the school and training teachers. By the end of Foster's time directing this school, there were 113 students in attendance, with a waiting list of over 300. As the deaf began to become literate, Foster would supplement their education with trade skills and the Gospel. Foster also convinced existing churches and missions to expand their ministry to