French educator, born in La Balme, near Lyons, France, on the 26th of December 1785; died in Hartford, CT, on the 18th of July 1869. When only a year old he fell into the fire, and was so injured that he lost the sense of smell and hearing. Several years later Abbé Sicard took the lad and gave him so good an education that he became a teacher. Rev. Dr. Gallaudet persuaded him to come to America and found an institution for the instruction of the deaf and dumb. This he did, and in 1817 such a school was opened at Hartford, and M. Clerc devoted the rest of his life to this work.
