William Stokoe  William C. Stokoe Jr. ( ; July 21, 1919 in New Hampshire – April 4, 2000 in Chevy Chase, Maryland) was an American linguist and a long-time professor at Gallaudet University. His research on American Sign Language (ASL) revolutionized the understanding of ASL in the United States and sign languages throughout the world and had a profound impact on deaf culture, deaf education, and sign language teaching and interpreting. Stokoe's work led to a widespread recognition that sign languages are true languages, exhibiting syntax and morphology, and are not mere systems of gesture. This work redefined the concept of "language" itself, and influenced thinking in theoretical linguistics, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, neural studies, and even jurisprudence. William C. Stokoe Jr. was born July 21, 1919, in New Hampshire and died April 4, 2000, in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Stokoe graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY in 1941, from where in 1946 he earned his Ph.D. in English, specifically medieval literature. From there, he became an instructor of English at Wells College in Aurora, NY. From 1955 to 1970 he served as a professor and chairman of the English department at Gallaudet University, after being recruited to the position by his friend and former classmate Dean George Detmold. He published "Sign Language Structure" (1960) and co-authored along with Dorothy C. Casterline and Carl G. Croneberg, "A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles" (1965). The former was the first place the term "American sign language" was ever formally used. (The fully capitalized version: "American Sign Language," first appeared in the Buff and Blue in October 1963.) He also started the academic journal "Sign Language Studies" in 1972, which he edited until 1996. He established Linstok Press, an academic publishing company, to facilitate the journal's publication. Stokoe's final book, "Language in Hand", was published in 2001, after his death. Though the relationship between Stokoe and Gallaudet was not always one of complete support (Gallaudet closed his Linguistics Research Laboratory, wherein he carried out the studies that would lead him to declare ASL a fully formed and legitimate language, in 1984, after he retired), the university awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1988. Stokoe researched American Sign Language (ASL) extensively while he worked at Gallaudet University.