In Memoriam: Deborah Hatton Beck, 1952-2018

Deborah Hatton Beck, professor of special education, emerita, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, died on September 4 in Franklin, Tennessee. She was 65 years old.

Dr. Hatton Beck came to Vanderbilt in 2009 as a tenured faculty member in the department of special education and as director of the Program in Visual Disabilities. At Vanderbilt, she researched ways to improve the outcomes of children and youth with visual disabilities. Her work resulted in many successful approaches for teaching Braille to children and other instructional techniques.

Before teaching at Vanderbilt, Dr. Hatton Beck was a teacher in the Henry County, Alabama, school system. She also founded and directed the Governor Moorehead Preschool for the Blind in Raleigh, North Carolina. Additionally, she had 15 years of experience directing research and outreach projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health.

A native of Fort Gaines, Georgia, Dr. Hatton Beck was the valedictorian of her high school class in Abbeville, Alabama. She held a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Auburn University in Alabama, a master’s degree in visual disabilities from Florida State University, and a doctorate in special education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.