Louis Laurent Marie Clerc was born on December 26, 1785 in La Balme, France. He was the third of a family of five children born to Joseph François Clerc and Marie Elizabeth Candy. His father and a number of ancestors before him had served as mayors of La Balme, arid his father also held the offices of notary public and judge. A fall into the fire when Laurent was about a year old resulted in deafness.
At the age of twelve Clerc's formal education was begun at the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Paris, presided over by the Abbé Sicard. His first teacher was a brilliant deaf man, Massieu, but during most of his eight years of schooling he was under the instruction of the Abbe himself.
An apt scholar, at twenty Clerc became an assistant teacher in the Paris Institute and later an instructor of the highest class. In 1815, during a trip to London by Sicard, Massieu, and Clerc, to exhibit their methods, they met Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who had come from America to study the art of teaching the deaf. The latter was invited to visit the Paris Institute, and did so in 1816, after he had found he could get little help in England. Gallaudet, after finishing his study of the Paris school, asked permission of Abbe Sicard to take back young Clerc with him to aid in establishing a permanent school for the deaf in the United States at Hartford, Connecticut. Finding that Clerc wished to go, Sicard released his brilliant young teacher, who left with Gallaudet on June 18, 1816, arriving in New York on August 9.
During the voyage of almost two months Clerc studied English with Gallaudet, who in turn received lessons in the language of signs from Clerc. Within three months after beginning the study of English, Clerc was able to present a written address in this language in Boston on the needs of the deaf, which was clear, convincing, and grammatically correct. He spent several months with Gallaudet in visiting the large cities of New England and the middle states, and in appearing before state legislatures, for the purpose of showing the possibilities of educating the deaf and the need of establishing an institution for their instruction in America. He was everywhere received with attention and kindness, and in a short time a considerable sum of money was raised by Gallaudet and Clerc for opening the first permanent school for the deaf at Hartford, now known as the American School for the Deaf. This school opened its doors on April 15, 1817.
Gallaudet was made principal of the school and Clerc a teacher, and within a year thirty-two deaf pupils were under their instruction. In 1819, largely owing to the favorable impression made by Clerc upon Congress, the latter granted to the school 20, 000 acres of wild land, later sold for $300, 000. Although he visited his native land in 1820, and again in 1835 and 1846, he returned each time to his labors. In 1858, at the age of seventy-three, he closed his active work as teacher and retired, though he was constantly in attendance at meetings of deaf people throughout New England, and continued his interest in the Hartford school.
He was the author of a number of addresses and articles in regard to the education of the deaf, which appeared in the American Annals of the Deaf.
In 1819 Clerc married Eliza Crocker Boardman of Whiteborough, New York, a beautiful and brilliant young woman who had lost her hearing in early childhood.
