Father Thomas J. Carroll (August 6, 1909 – April 24, 1971) was a Catholic priest and a pioneer in treatment for people who became blind later in their lives,. He was also a leader in implementing liturgical renewal in the Catholic church after Vatican II and took an active part in the civil rights movement.
Early adult life
Father Thomas Carroll graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1932 and from St. Johns Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts, in 1938.
He was ordained May 20, 1938, by Bishop Francis Spellman.
U.S. liturgical movement
Liturgy is a rite or body of rites prescribed for public worship. Rev. Thomas J. Carroll was a pioneer and leader in the Liturgical Movement in the U.S. He was the president of the New England Regional Unit of the National Liturgical Conference, and founded a newsletter "the Mediator". He was president of the National Liturgical Conference from 1946 to 1949, and was on both the executive committee and the Advisory Council.
Work with the blind
In addition to his work on Liturgical reform, he is best known for his work with the blind, especially those who become blind as adults. He was a pioneer in rehabilitation for the blind and in the specific area of Orientation and Mobility (O&M). In 1938, Carroll's first assignment after ordination was as the assistant director of the Catholic Guild for The Blind, an agency of the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts.
In October 1944, he was appointed chaplain of St. Raphael's Hall in Newton, Massachusetts.
Carroll played a key role in the establishment of low vision and blind services for the military and veterans administrations. He was auxiliary chaplain working with blinded serviceman at the U.S. Army's Ophthalmological Center located at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and at the Avon Old Farms Convalescent Hospital in Connecticut from 1944 to 1947. He helped to found the Blinded Veterans Association (BVA) and was its National Chaplain until his death in 1971.
In 1945, the U.S. Army established the "Honorary Civilian Advisory Committee, Program for the War Blinded of the United States Army". Members included Robert Irwin (Chairman of the committee), Colonel Baker (Canada), Reverend Thomas Carroll, Joseph G. Cauffma, Dr. Roma S. Cheek, Dr. Gabriel Farrell, Philip N. Harrison, R. Henry P. Johnson, Mrs. Lee Johnson, W.L.McDaniel, Eber L. Palmer, Peter J. Salmon. The committee was disbanded in 1946, but the members, plus three additional members, then became the VA's Committee on the Blinded Veteran with the permission of General Omar Bradley, the new head of the VA. Carroll also served on the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. He served on the program for the war-blinded of the U.S. Army. In November 1946, he became executive director of the Catholic Guild for all of the blind replacing Father Connolly.
Father Carroll was a fencer. While working with the blinded vets in Avon Old Farms Convalescent Hospital he saw blinded vets fencing, which was easily accepted by the vets as a competitive skill for combat. Carroll saw the connection between fencing and cane travel, so he introduced fencing to the trainees at the St. Paul's Rehabilitation Center for Newly Blinded Adults when he got it going. The fencing program he implemented in the 1940s was the first designed for the blind. He introduced the fencing program at the Carroll Center in 1954 with Larry Dargle. They then brought in Eric Sollee in 1968. Eric Sollee took over in 1972 and continued to teach there for four decades.
In 1953, in the United States there were only 40 full-time mobility restoration experts. Recognizing a lack of sufficient experts, Father Carroll helped to organize the first conference on mobility restoration at his family's home near Gloucester, Massachusetts. This three-day conference gathered thirty experts in a range of fields regarding blind activities. During the conference, the non-blind experts (five were blind) were blindfolded for two hours. Speaking of this experience, Carroll said, "We recognized immediately our feeling of fright, insecurity, groping, and awkwardness. …This shows, in a way that no amount of discussion could, how great is the need for coordinated scientific mobility training." As a result of this conference, a Committee on Mobility Restoration was formed. Dr. A.B.C. Knudsen, director of the Veteran's Administration physical medicine and rehabilitation, one of the attendees, advocated for a national program, patterned after the Army's program for rehabilitation of the blind.