May 15, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Loyal four-legged friend ‘hears’ for deaf minister
by JIM HARRIS AND ZIPORA SCHULZ

Rev. Pickering walks his hearing dog, Buffy, on Woodale Avenue, their previous home in Chestnut Hill.  (Photo by Jim Harris)

When they held a fire drill recently at the Willow Valley Retirement Community near Lancaster, the first residents to emerge were a couple and their little shepherd/sheltie mixed-breed dog named Buffy. She is a service dog, which accounts for the rapid response to the fire alarm. The couple was the Rev. Roger Pickering and his wife Sandra, most recently of Chestnut Hill, but on a journey that has taken them to many places and won them many friends along the way.

Roger was born to a Norwegian father and Finnish mother who met in Minnesota. He grew up in Michigan, and at the age of six, contracted scarlet fever and lost his hearing. After initially attending schools for the deaf, he went on to attend regular high schools and colleges, earning a degree in chemistry at the University of Chicago in 1957.

When asked how he was able to cope in schools that were not equipped to teach deaf students, he replied, “I read a lot. I asked the teachers for outside reading on the classroom topics, and asked questions about some points. I did not have interpreters or note takers. I would ask to sit next to another student in class and copy his or her notes. The teachers were very generous with their time, seeing that I was really interested in learning.”

While pursuing a PhD in chemistry at Penn, however, Roger had a change of heart. “I liked science,” he said, “but I missed the human element.” So, in 1959, he left chemistry and decided to pursue the ministry, receiving his Master’s degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, in 1962.

It was while in California that he met his wife-to-be, Sandra. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Sandra, who is hearing, trained as a teacher of the deaf at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. “We met in the chapel of St. Mark’s Church in Berkeley,” the reverend said, “where I led services for a small deaf congregation. In her first year of teaching after graduation, Sandra had heard of me from a fellow teacher at the California School for the Deaf, who was a member of my congregation.” He added, “God moves in mysterious ways.” They were married in Denver on July 12, 1962.

At that time, there was a movement to start a deaf ministry in Berkeley. Roger became the founding lay vicar of the Mission of the Holy Spirit. He went on to become Diocesan Minister to the Deaf for the Episcopal Diocese of California, a position he held until 1968. “We were in San Francisco during the era of the hippies,” he said. “I was contemporary but not radical in my ministry from the very beginning.”

They relocated from California to Chestnut Hill in 1969, finding it “an attractive neighborhood” near the campus of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf — then in Mount Airy — where Roger would one day become the first deaf president of the board of trustees.

The reverend’s main ministry in Philadelphia was in serving as the Vicar of All Souls’ Church for the Deaf, located in the Seamen’s Church Institute, 5th and Spring Garden Streets. Roger served in this role for 32 years, from 1969 until 2001. He then retired, but was called back to be Priest-in-Charge from 2006 to 2007, and then retired again.

Along with his primary ministry, Roger has served in a great many local and national organizations and ministries dedicated to helping the deaf and disabled.

When he saw his friends with their service dogs, it made Roger think. After their previous dog, “Sunny” (who was found in the Wissahickon), died of old age, Roger sought out a hearing dog.

He did some research on the internet and, about nine years ago, got Buffy, as a puppy, from a trainer named Mike Atrim in Kutztown. Buffy grew up with the Pickerings, with intermittent trips to the trainer; then Mr. Atrim took her to train full-time so she could get her certification. Buffy is trained mainly for indoors, to help Roger hear the doorbell, the phone, etc. She looks to the source of sound, making Roger more aware. He says that Buffy has changed his life. Whenever Roger goes anywhere without Buffy, she waits patiently by the door.

Buffy has made Sandra’s life easier too – Sandra doesn’t always have to get Roger herself now, she just says, “Go get Roger,” and Buffy does. Buffy responds to both hand signals and voice commands, and is trained to go under tables at meetings and church services, although “she’s very much a moocher at social hour” according to Sandra.

On a personal note, my wife and I had the opportunity in 2004 to attend a service at the Seamen’s Institute led by Rev. Pickering. It was very moving as each congregant came up and signed a portion of the service. Afterwards, at the social hour, Buffy did indeed use her charm to finagle cookies from the congregants, and then we all went out to the Silk City Diner for lunch. We found all of the church members to be extremely warm and friendly.

In 2006, The Pickerings moved into the Willow Valley Retirement Community, a very large life-care facility offering a full range of services, located two miles south of Lancaster city limits. Roger says, “The area has many cultural attractions and a strong deaf community. We are very happy here.” 

At the retirement community, only small dogs are allowed, but as a service dog, Buffy is exempted. She has a number of acquaintances among the other dogs, and also shares the Pickerings’ home with her old cat-friend, “Bandit,” who is also nine years old.

For a year-and-a-half after moving to Willow Valley, Roger remained priest-in-charge of his old congregation in Philadelphia until a new part-time vicar was installed. During most of that time, he commuted from Lancaster for monthly services and a few meetings, staying at the Chestnut Hill Hotel. He says, “It made the transition to Lancaster after some 37 years on Woodale Road a bit easier. We loved our home, the neighbors and the area, and we still read the Chestnut Hill Local.”

Roger says he has always considered himself a bridge between two worlds — the deaf world and the hearing — and for almost nine years now, his loyal friend Buffy has served that purpose, too.