The proud son of deaf parents, McChord graduated from Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky in 1962 and earned his Master’s Degree at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. in 1963.  He also pursued doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Virginia.  In his career, he has served as a classroom teacher (1963-66), and later as principal (1967-69), at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton, where his mother had once been a student.  Upon his appointment in 1966-67 at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Romney, VA, he was this nation’s youngest principal of a center school for the deaf.

He was married to Charlotte Lewis Bryant. Their only child, daughter Shannon, was born in Staunton, VA on April 8, 1968.

He returned to his home state in 1969 as principal of the Kentucky School for the Deaf, where his parents graduated in 1935.  In 1971, he became KSD’s superintendent, the youngest superintendent of a center school for the deaf in the U.S.  In 1978, Charlotte McChord earned a law degree and began a legal practice serving the deaf.

After ten years in the front office of KSD, the McChords moved to Connecticut, where “Win” served twenty years as Executive Director of the American School for the Deaf. It was the first school in his career where his parents had never been students and he had no relatives on the staff or in the student body, though one of the ASD teachers was VSDB’s Betty Roop Young. However, he soon became a part of the ASD extended family, where his love of film, colorful stories, and genuine concern for the well being of students and staff earned him the affection and respect of those who knew him. 

Charlotte McChord passed away on January 3, 1999.

After leaving ASD in 2001, McChord served as interim president of the St. Mary’s School for the Deaf (2001-2003) in Buffalo, NY, before accepting the position of director of the Georgia School for the Deaf.

His was a long and distinguished career in Deaf education; he was the first licensed interpreter for the deaf in America (1973); president of the Conference of Educational Administrators Serving the Deaf (1988-90); visiting professor at Huajhong Normal University in Wuhan, Mainland China (1990); president of the National Association of Private Special Education Centers (2000-2003); a member of the Bicentennial Celebration Committee of the school for the deaf in Paris, France; and the host of the 1997 Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.  McChord interpreted for one U.S. Vice President (Gore) and two U.S. Presidents (Kennedy and Clinton).

He is survived by his brother, Ed McChord, of Lexington, KY, his daughter, Shannon Lewis McChord, also of Lexington, and many nieces and nephews. Visitation will be from 5-8:00 p.m. Thursday at W.R. Milward Mortuary Southland in Lexington. A memorial service will take place at 5:00 p.m. Friday, December 15, in Grow Hall at the Kentucky School for the Deaf in Danville. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Kentucky School for the Deaf Museum, 303 S 2nd Street, Danville, KY 40422; or the American School for the Deaf Museum, 139 N. Main Street, West Hartford, CT 06107.

He will be missed.