February 3, 1925-November 15, 2001
by Fred Gissoni
This past November 15, one of the 20th century's pioneers in work for people who are blind passed into history with the death in Louisville, Ky., of T. V. (Tim) Cranmer.
For most of his adult life Tim Cranmer (his name really was Terrence) was involved in one way or another in developing and providing service to blind people.
In 1952 Cranmer joined the staff of Services for the Blind of the Kentucky Department of Education. Before that, he had worked as a piano technician. In this role, he had invented a key leveling instrument that became popular with sighted as well as blind technicians.
Over the years, he headed the program of services for the blind in Kentucky and later directed the provision of technical support for blind clients of the agency.
Tim had an inventive mind. As a radio amateur, he contributed articles for various circuits to the Braille Technical Press. In 1965 he wrote an article describing a thermometer with a braille scale and audible output.
Early in the 1960s, he engaged a Frankfort high school student to help with clerical and other visual chores. That student was Deane Blazie. Tim interested Deane in electronics and the relationship was one that turned out to benefit blind people everywhere.
Tim's other contributions include the abacus that bears his name. It is one with beads that can be operated and read by touch without disturbing them. At the time of its development there was no efficient calculator available to blind people. The abacus turned out to be a vital link in enabling blind people to work as taxpayer assistors for the Internal Revenue Service.
Together with Deane Blazie, Tim pioneered information retrieval with a computer-based talking telephone directory that enabled blind switchboard operators to look up information at universities and similar institutions.
At a time when the prevailing wisdom said there was no room for personal braille printers, Tim developed a modified Perkins braillewriter that was driven by a computer. This device was sold commercially as the Cranmer Modified Perkins Brailler. Its popularity encouraged others to enter the marketplace, providing personal braille embossers.
He pioneered local production of braille using translation software which he wrote, and his software was the first to enable blind people using personal computers to fill out forms independently.
In 1982, Cranmer retired from the Kentucky Department for the Blind and devoted much time thereafter to developments related to the braille code. He was one of the prime movers in the effort to establish a unified braille code.
In recent years his health had been in decline due to pulmonary fibrosis.
Tim Cranmer's contributions will doubtless continue to touch the lives of blind people for years to come.