Byron B. Burnes, nicknamed “BBB,” was born in Batavia, Iowa, in 1904, and his family later moved to Alabama. He became deaf near the age of 15 after a high fever, and transferred to the Alabama School for the Deaf before attending Gallaudet.

After graduating from Gallaudet in the Class of 1926, Burnes worked as a teacher in several deaf schools before ending up at the California School for the Deaf at Berkeley in 1941, where he spent the rest of his teaching career. He later earned another BA in mathematics and education from Augustana College in South Dakota, and then a MA in education from the University of Chicago. Gallaudet College awarded Burnes an honorary doctorate in 1955, and he received the Laurent Clerc Award in 1981.

Burnes first became involved with the National Association of the Deaf as secretary-treasurer in 1937, and he was elected NAD president in 1946. At that time, many deaf people had lost interest in the NAD, which was seen as poorly led and ineffective. Under Burnes’s leadership, the NAD expanded its membership by two-thirds and established its first home office in Chicago (later relocated to Berkeley). He led the organization to become more aggressive in public relations and in engaging with the hearing community on deaf issues. This included launching campaigns in favor of equal rights for deaf drivers, against deaf peddlers and oral-only education, and discouraging the use of the term “deaf-mute.” Byrnes also helped reestablish the Silent Worker (later the Deaf American) as a national magazine and served as its editor. Burnes’s wife, Caroline, came up with the idea for the Junior NAD and created it in 1960 with Burnes’s support. Due to his efforts to reinvigorate the organization, he was often called “Mr. NAD.”

As NAD president, Burnes traveled the country speaking to both deaf and hearing groups about the needs of deaf people. Burnes left the NAD presidency in 1964 and retired from teaching at Berkeley in 1969, but remained active in the NAD and in the larger deaf community. When Gallaudet opened its Northwest Campus in 1983, one of the faculty office buildings was named Burnes Hall in his honor.

Byron B. Burnes passed away in 1999 at the age of 95.