John Collins Covell

Upon graduating from Trinity College, Covell accepted a teaching position in the Deaf Department of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton, Virginia and relocated there in September 1847.[1][2] Covell continued teaching until 1852 when he was made a vice-principal of the institution and given charge of the entire Deaf Mute Department.[1][2]

Following the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Covell entered the Confederate States Army with the rank of major and served on the staff of Brigadier General Henry A. Wise.[2] Covell served on General Wise's staff only briefly before the state of Virginia recalled him to the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in 1862 to become the institution's principal.[2][3] According to the National Conference of Superintendents and Principals of Institutions for Deaf Mutes in 1888, the state of Virginia considered Covell's services "of more value as manager of one of her noblest public institutions than as a soldier in the field."[2] While serving as principal, Covell continued to head and instruct in the school's Deaf Mute Department.[8] Covell remained principal of the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind for nine years until his resignation from the institution in 1872.[1][2]

In an 1870 address entitled "The Nobility, Dignity, and Antiquity of the Sign Language" which Covell delivered at the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf in Indianapolis, Indiana, he asserted that sign language would gain in popularity among hearing people and would be taught alongside philology as part of the basic curricula of universities.[9][10] Over a century after Covell's 1870 prediction, American Sign Language has been added to curricula of language departments in a growing number of American universities.[9][11]

Administration Building of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia, in 1880 during Covell's tenure as its principal.

In June–July 1874, Covell was selected by the Board of Regents of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia to serve as the institution's principal, and he began his tenure there in August of that year.[1][2][12][13] Upon his arrival, Covell found the schools "in a chaotic condition" with decreasing attendance, but the situation improved after Covell provided leadership, order, and a process of reorganization.[3][12][13] Under his leadership, the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind experienced "unprecedented success" and its student body began to grow due to Covell's initiatives.[12] Covell found that 12 out of West Virginia's 54 counties had no representatives at the schools, so he urged the Board of Regents to canvass the state for students eligible to attend the institution.[14] The board approved Covell's recommendation, and the resulting investigation identified students in those counties, which validated Covell's request.[15] By the schools' tenth anniversary in 1880, the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind's attendance reached 120, consisting of 87 "deaf-mute" and 33 blind students.[16] At his death in 1887, the institution had grown from a student body of 60 pupils in 1874 to 130.[17]

Among his other reforms, Covell undertook to modernize the facilities of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind by urging the state to install gas lighting and to install plumbing for the purposes of providing tap water.[15] In addition to the school's infrastructure, Covell overhauled the school's levels of comprehension in 1875 by introducing a classification system in which students were arranged in grades.[15] Covell also introduced the tradition of publishing biennial reports, then annual reports, which have continued to be released every year since 1876.[15] In 1877, at Covell's recommendation, the schools' board established the Department of Visible Speech in which deaf-mute students were instructed in the manner of articulation and lip reading.[15]

Faculty and staff at the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in 1884. Standing left to right: Mr. Shaeffer, Principal John Collins Covell, Abraham D. Hays, and math professor E. L. Chapin. Seated left to right: school founder Howard Hille Johnson, J. B. McGann, Lulie Kern, Martha Clelland, Sarah Caruthers, and principal of the deaf school, H. H. Chidester.

As an educator, Covell was described as "an instructor of rare ability, being well-versed in literature, science, and the arts" and as "a gentleman of fine abilities and ripe experience".[3][13] He had great personal influence on his students and took an interest in their religious well-being.[18] Covell continued serving as principal of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind until his death from stomach cancer on Saturday, June 4, 1887, in Romney.[1][2][3][13][17] Known for his excellence as an executive and administrative officer, all his affairs were found by the president of the school's Board of Regents "to be finished, so that nothing remained to be done" on the day of his death.[3]

Following his death, Covell was honored in 1888 at the National Conference of Superintendents and Principals of Institutions for Deaf Mutes in Jackson, Mississippi, by W. O. Connor, Principal of the Georgia School for the Deaf, who stated:

[W]e greatly deplore his [Covell's] loss to the Institution over which he presided with such universal acceptability; and that in his death we recognize the loss of a friend worthy of the fullest confidence, and an official of marked ability and adaptation to his duties, which he always performed with a faithfulness and efficiency unexcelled.[19]

His obituary in The Churchman remarked of Covell:

[W]ith untiring zeal and fidelity, he has labored in the noble work of elevating and educating the deaf, dumb and the blind. He stood without an equal in methods entirely original.[3]