The Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf is one of the oldest organizations for the deaf in the United States. Its roots lie at the National Deaf Mute College in 1880 amongst a gathering of alumni of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. They decided to host a convention in Pennsylvania in 1881.

In August of 1881, the first PSAD convention was held in Harrisburg and the organization was established as the Pennsylvania Association of Deaf-Mutes. The aims of the Association were to promote the causes of the deaf of Pennsylvania. In 1888 the name of the organization was changed to the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf. The Society received its charter in 1891. In 2023, the Society voted and passed a referendum changing the name of the organization to the Pennsylvania State Association of the Deaf.

Over the years the PSAD has had some impressive successes such as advocating for laws giving deaf people the right to drive, advocating for the rights of deaf children to get an appropriate education, and establishing local chapters beginning in 1899. The PSAD continues to work to advance the interests of the deaf in Pennsylvania.

One of the first and most impactful projects of the PSAD was to create the Benevolent Fund. This fund eventually created the Pennsylvania Home for the Aged and Infirm Deaf. It took from 1884 to 1902 for this goal to be funded. From 1902 to 1971 the PSAD ran the Home at Doylestown and later in Torresdale. It eventually became the G.W. Nevil Home at Elwyn Institutes. Today the Home is known as Valley View.

Many of the facts listed in this biography came from the 1981 convention program book which contains a history of the PSAD written by Frank J. Nemshick.