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WDF (Founded
1972)
Hank Truby,
Ric O'Barry, William Lange, Michael Hyson and others founded the World
Dolphin Foundation. From 1972 to 1974 the World Dolphin
Foundation hosted two dolphins, Florida and Liberty in the Mashta Island
lagoon (Part of the original Flagler estate on Key Biscayne and
near near Nixon's Florida "Whitehouse").
Our concept
was that the dolphins would be released, learn to live in the sea and
return with other dolphins, offering new cooperative alternatives to
captivity. Over the period of the project, at least 1500 people
met the dolphins and often swam with them. Communication and other
projects were planned and partially completed. In 1974, the dolphins
were released near Abaco island, Bahamas at the close of the project.
Florida and Liberty joined a pod formed of dolphins released after filming
of "Day of the Dolphin" with George C. Scott.
Part of this story is told in O'Barry's book "Behind the Dolphin
Smile". The World Dolphin Foundation is still active.
What follows
is an outline biography of Hank Truby provided by his son Fred.
It only touches his accomplishments, which include some 250 publications
on, among other things - phonetics; linguistics; speech sounds;
"voiceprinting"; baby cry; X-ray films of speech articulations,
baby cry and initial breaths; voice recognition and voice synthesis
by computer; analysis of dolphin sounds and interspecies communication;
teaching dolphins English with John Lilly; and being the first to take
autistic children to see the dolphins; and a phonetic alphabet for children
for the teaching of reading and phonetics.
For many years in Miami, I experienced the rambling Truby household
in South Miami including the kids, Doc the pony (who came in the house
sometimes), Anika, Nale and the other dogs, swimming, tennis, trampolines,
ping-pong, the rescue of scorpions, toads, and other creatures, the
baby "squog" (a squirrel?possum?dog? that turned out to be
a baby squirrel), Santa Lucia ceremonies, adventures with the dolphins,
research at the Mailman Center for Child Development, and many other
events. His wife Ann-Sofi and the kids were/are marvelous, and
I will always remember this time as one of the happiest of my life.
Those of us privileged to know Hank miss him. He was one of the
most accomplished, talented, and kind people I have ever met.
I learned a lot from him. Thank you Hank! - M.H.
Henry (Hank)
Mayer Truby
- Born in Independence
Kansas on July 24, 1919.
- Age twelve enrolled
in St. Johns Military School in Delafield, Wisconsin by winning
a national spelling bee. Graduated with Honors in 1937.
- Attended Paris Junior
College in Paris, Texas and graduated 1939.
- Attended University
of Texas. Studied Mathematics, Language, and English. Graduated
with a BA in 1941.
- During WWII served
in the US Army as an infantry captain in the Philippines and New
Guinea. Decorated with Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Set records
in Army Service Forces Physical Proficiency tests.
- Attended University
of Wisconsin. Graduated with an MA in English 1949. Course emphasis
on phonetics, linguistics. In extenso, Anglo-Saxon, Beowolf, Middle
English, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Sanskrit, Latin Greek paleography,
engineering, and mathematics.
- Attended Columbia
University as a Ph.D. candidate in Linguistics in 1950-54. Dissertation
was on comparative phonology.
- 1955. Sweden: Became
staff scientist of acoustic phonetics and synthesized speech at
the Royal Institute of Technology.
- 1959. Received Ph.D.
in Phonetics at University of Lund, Sweden. Also wrote and
published book on newborn infant cry analysis
- 1961. NIH consultant
and Resident at Bethesda Clinical Center, Washington D.C.
- 1962-1965. Staff
Scientist with IBM in Speech Communication Research Division.
- 1963-? Phonetics
consultant, Random House Dictionary of the English Language. Wrote
or co-wrote over 600 definitions.
- 1964. Honored Alumnus
for 1964, St. Johns Military Academy. First time in school’s 100-year
history that this award did not go to a career military or diplomatic
candidate.
- 1965 became Staff
Scientist with Dr. John Lilly at the Communication Research Institute
in Coconut Grove studying dolphin communication and inter-species
communication.
- 1965-75. Tenured
professor at University of Miami in Pediatrics, Linguistics, and
Anthropology
- 1970-71. Special
Consultant to US Bureau of Indian Affairs for Miccousukee Indians.
- World Dolphin Foundation.
Charter member. From 1972 President and Director of Scientific Research.
- International Association
of Voiceprint Identification 1971-78. Charter member of the Board
of Directors.
- 1978-1993. National
consultant and expert witness in over fifty legal cases involving
voice identification.
- 1992. Awarded Distinguished
Alumni of Paris Junior College.
- Died September 5,
1993 in Miami.
In between
his professional accomplishments (I’ve left some out due to space restrictions),
my dad was an outspoken advocate for the environment, especially focusing
on protecting the Everglades and staunchly opposing hunting for
sport and any killing of marine mammals.
In addition,
in his busy life, he managed to marry, raise six kids, become a professional
tennis player and coach, and operate a summer camp for kids. He was
an aspiring musician (singer, rag time piano, trap drums, ukulele) writing
over one hundred songs, was a Boy Scout Leader and Girl Scout
Leader, root beer aficionado, dominoes champ, and world renowned ping
pong whiz!
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