David Elson Bond, an internationally-recognised figure in deaf and special-needs education who lived latterly in Dundee, has died at the age of 69.
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, he attended Henderson High School, teacher training college and gained a Master’s degree at Auckland University.
He decided to train as a teacher of the deaf in Christchurch as his uncle was profoundly deaf, and he obtained a Commonwealth Fellowship to train in educational audiology at Manchester University.
In Manchester he met Margaret while she was training to become a teacher and they were married in Dundee in 1972.
Mr Bond worked in the education department at Nottingham University and then returned to New Zealand as he was seconded back to Kelston school for Deaf children, Auckland.
They returned to the UK at Durham University and then he started as an as educational psychologist at the Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate.
Mr Bond began to be heavily involved in the Sense services for children and visited Romania immediately after the revolution, being involved in the programme run by the British Red Cross.
He also visited numerous other places over the globe in the furtherance of the education of deaf and deaf blind children.
He became the principal and director of the Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate and Westgate College, one of the largest deaf educational establishments in Europe.
On his retirement, he settled in Dundee and, with Doreen Woodford and others, he established the Woodford Foundation, the charity working to improve the lives of young deaf people around the world.
Mr Bond is survived by his wife Margaret, son Toby and two grandchildren.