Created by the late Bernice Hoeper in honor of her late husband, A. Eugene Hoeper, the A. Eugene Hoeper Foundation was a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support to programs that help alleviate extreme loneliness and isolation experienced by chronically ill and home-bound deaf individuals through visitations and Cheer-by-Mail.
The organization’s funds also supported respite for caretakers and provided specialized equipment. Mrs. Hoeper worked with students from the CCBC Interpreter Preparation program, who volunteered with the foundation. The Hoeper Foundation began giving scholarships to students in that program in 2006.
Mr. Hoeper was born deaf, and Mrs. Hoeper lost her hearing at 18 after suffering from spinal meningitis. Mrs. Hoeper completed her undergraduate degree at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., and in 1975, she became the first deaf woman ever to receive a master’s degree from the University of Maryland School of Social Work in Baltimore.
The foundation closed in 2015 due to Mrs. Hoeper’s failing health, but her legacy lives on. Mrs. Hoeper and the Hoeper Foundation have given CCBC more than $1 million in endowment funding to support scholarships for ASL and Interpreter Preparation students. In 2018, the CCBC Interpreter Preparation program became the A. Eugene & Bernice Hoeper ASL and Interpreting Program to honor them and their foundation.
CCBC is honored to be affiliated with this very generous foundation, which has done so much to support CCBC students and the local Deaf community.