Cross & Crescent

Three times in his life, Bill Raeder (Boston 1960) attempted to learn braille, a textured-based code the blind use to read and write. Unfortunately, injuries he sustained from a TNT accident shortly after college limit his ability to easily distinguish characters from one another.

Through determination and hard work, Raeder managed to overcome his disability. Not in the traditional sense, for he can read only three to six characters a minute; but in the professional sense, where his ambition and professional drive have led to much success.

For more than 20 years, Raeder has worked to promote literacy for the blind and currently serves as president of the National Braille Press, a nonprofit braille printer and publisher located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tragedy Struck

When Raeder graduated from Boston University in 1960, he embarked into the world full of energy with a bachelor’s in geology.

In his first research project, he was in Alaska doing a study on seismic refraction of the ocean floor. “I was up on the Arctic Ocean,” says Raeder, “near Point Barrow, the northernmost point on the North American continent.”

Raeder and his team were located on a floating ice island about 90 miles north of Barrow. He and another member of the team were out causing seismic disturbances when tragedy struck.

“We were mapping out the structure of the ocean floor,” he says. “And in seismology, we don’t always wait around for earthquakes to happen; we create our own using TNT. I was actually holding the TNT in my hand when it went off.”

The seismic tests were conducted by using a radio detonator, which would simultaneously ignite the TNT and signal the seismic equipment to begin recording back at camp.

“Our radio had not been working very well that day,” says Raeder. “And while I was out wiring the TNT, my buddy decided to test the radio. Well…it worked.”

The TNT detonated in Raeder’s hands. He was blinded in one eye, lost his right hand, and lost all but his pinky and ring finger on his left hand. His other eye was later lost due to infection from his injuries.

A lesser man would have given up, but Raeder returned to Boston University after months of surgery and rehabilitation. He graduated with a master’s in Government in 1964.

Unfortunately for Raeder, despite hours of diligent work, his braille reading could accomplish only two to three characters per minute. This was mainly due to the fact that his two remaining fingers are the least sensitive on a human body. This made distinguishing among the different characters very difficult.

Raeder’s inability to read braille didn’t slow him down. Soon after obtaining his masters, he worked for the National Life Insurance Company of Vermont. He was so successful, he achieved President’s Club membership in his first year.

Other accomplishments include serving as executive director and president of the Foundation for Urban Negro Development from 1969-1971, and president and general manager of Boston’s Aquarius Theater from 1971-1973.

It wasn’t until 1975 that he began working for the National Braille Press, beginning as a managing director, progressing to executive director, and eventually president.

Printing Braille

The National Braille Press provides a service to the blind that is unmatched by any other publishing house.

“About a third of the stuff we print — maybe a little more — are items we publish ourselves,” says Raeder. “The rest are items we publish for other organizations like airlines, the Library of Congress, or organizations that serve blind people.”

Printing braille is reasonably competitive. “The Library of Congress has a congressional mandate to provide reading materials for blind citizens,” says Raeder. “There are only five braille printing companies that do that kind of work.”

Many braille presses tend to be specialized, focusing only on publishing children books, religious content, or other niches. “But for general publishing of a wide variety of materials, and marketing those materials, we’re pretty much up there on our own.”

One of Raeder’s biggest successes has been the publishing of popular books such as the Harry Potter series. The amount of work to create one of these books is quite intensive. “It’s a mix of high tech and manual labor,” says Raeder.

After the publisher provides a text file, it must then be reformatted into a standard braille size. It is then run through a computer braille translator and printed out in an embossing printer. This is then checked for formatting and accuracy before being transferred to metal plates and finally to the paper product.

Typically, the National Braille Press is unable to release books at the same time as the print versions. However, in the latest Harry Potter release, Raeder was able to obtain the text file two weeks before release and worked night and day so that these books would be available to blind people at the same time as the regular release.

“Usually braille books come out later, sometimes years later, than the regular print edition becomes public,” says Raeder. “But the ”Harry Potter” series had so much marketing hype around it, blind kids wanted a copy of their book at the same time.”

Since his start in 1975, Raeder has helped the National Braille Press grow and expand. He reversed its financial losses, created new programs for establishing braille reading, oversaw the transformation of braille transcription from manual to computer based, and even expanded charitable support to the press.

Puddle Pushers

Raeder grew up in a suburb just outside of Boston. He enrolled at Boston University for a very practical reason, “My father was on the faculty, and there was a tuition concession,” he says.

It turns out Boston University was a good fit for Raeder. His interests as an undergraduate were fairly diverse. One of those interests was to join the crew team.

“There were a number of Lambda Chis on the crew at the time,” he recalls. “In fact, the faculty adviser to Lambda Chi was the crew coach. His name was Jim Nesworthy (1947). We called ourselves the Puddle Pushers.”

The chapter had a three-story row house. Early on, Raeder accepted the job of house manager and steward. “Which meant I was in charge of the kitchen,” though he admits the cook was really the one in charge of the kitchen. A natural leader, Raeder was later entrusted to serve as pledge master and eventually chapter treasurer.

“It was a great experience,” says Raeder. “It wasn’t my first experience handling money of course, but it was my first experience keeping the books.”

Raeder has found that membership in the fraternity has helped him in two very crucial ways. When he first came to college he was a shy, unsocial guy. “I found it deathly hard to ask a girl for a date,” he recalls. “So for the socializing experience, Lambda Chi Alpha helped me get beyond that.”

He has also found that his time serving as a chapter officer provided good practice and experience for learning how to organize and motivate people.

“I gained a lot of experience by having several roles as a chapter officer. You’ve got to organize people, get them motivated, and if they don’t want to get out of bed on a Saturday afternoon, you’ve got to get them to do it, to clean the house,” says Raeder.

“That kind of experience, though it seems small, makes a significant difference as to whether you’re able to function when you get out in life.”