NORFOLK, Va. — Dr. Karen Gearreald is an educator, administrator, singer, and accomplished pianist.
And she's been defying the odds since her college years.
Dr. Gearreald was on a 4-woman team from Agnes Scott College in the 1966 General Electric College Bowl, a televised student quiz show. They took on 4 men from Princeton University. During a nail-biting rapid fire round, the announcer asked Agnes Scott a final question: 'Bucephalus and Roan Barbary were steeds. For 20 points, what were Balmung and Durendal?' Dr. Gearreald barely beat the buzzer, exclaiming, 'SWORDS!' In a shocking upset, that answer won the game for her team from the small liberal arts college in Georgia.
Besting some of the brightest students from an Ivy League school could easily be how Dr. Gearreald is remembered at Agnes Scott. But it's not just that.
She's also the college's first blind student.
"When I was just learning Braille, there was a little sentence at the bottom of my alphabet sheet, and it said 'Obstacles are things to be overcome.,'" says Dr. Gearreald.
After graduating from Agness Scott, Dr. Gearreald earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University and law degree from Duke University. She taught for a few years at the Hadley School for the Blind and had a 20-year-long career as a lawyer for the Navy.
Now, she's embracing her love of music and is helping other do the same. "Playing music for people gives us the opportunity to encourage them to develop their own abilities and also to let them know, perhaps, how we developed our ability to do what we do," says Dr. Gearreald.
A large machine takes up much of a room on the first floor of Dr. Gearreald's home. But it helps her emboss music transcribed to Braille cells so it can be read by blind musicians. "It enables blind people to come out of isolation, to come out of their shells, to gain confidence, and to enter the world of the sighted and be a part of everyone's life," Dr. Gearreald says.
She now advises and instructs Braille music for the Library of Congress, opening doors for many more people to play on. "I want to help people participate and have a full life and a satisfying life and feel that regardless of disability, they can give to others," Dr. Gearreald says. "The ability to see, although it would be helpful at times, is a very small matter."