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"Buddy"

© Meg Greene Malvasi

Dorothy Harrison Eustis read the letter a second time. "Thousands of blind people like me abhor [hate] being dependent on others," the young man from Tennessee had written. "Help me and I will help them. Train me and I will bring back my dog and show people here how a blind man can be absolutely on his own." The young man's plea moved Mrs. Eustis, a champion breeder and trainer of German Shepherds, convincing her that she had to do something to help. She invited her young correspondent to visit her in Switzerland to see what could be done.

In 1927, Morris Frank, the blind man who had written Mrs. Eustis, arrived in Switzerland. While there, Mrs. Eustis picked and trained Buddy, a young German Shepherd, to become the first "Seeing Eye Dog" in the United States. Together, Morris and Buddy would make history, and in the process would open a new world to the blind.

As Morris Frank later described it, his adventures with Buddy were "glorious,-just the dog and a leather strap linking me to life." When Morris and Buddy returned to the United States, they traveled across the country to promote the training and use of seeing-eye dogs. At almost every place they stopped, they faced everyday situations that showed how useful and important guide dogs like Buddy could be. Simple tasks, such as crossing a busy street or going up and down stairs, were often difficult, even frightening for the blind. Guiding his master through these and other situations put Buddy to the test. Morris Frank and others soon learned that this new companion was more than up to the challenge. As for Morris, he came more and more to trust Buddy as his "eyes."

In 1929, Dorothy Eustis returned to the United States. Helped by Morris Frank and Buddy, The Seeing Eye, she established "The Seeing Eye," the pioneer guide dog school in the United States. The first class was small, consisting of-only two students! But Morris and Buddy continued their travels, meeting and talking with other blind people about the school and what it could do for them as well as what it could help them do for themselves. By the end of its first year, The Seeing Eye, located in Nashville, Tennessee, had grown to seventeen students. These men and women had come from all over the United States, drawn by the promise not only of receiving a guide dog but by the hope of attaining a new independence despite their disability. Eventually the school moved to its present home in Morristown, New Jersey, where it is still in operation today.

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