\u201cJoe White was amazing,\u201d Fouts said. White prioritized relationships over theory and built immediate trust, especially with children. \u201cHe saw that in me, too,\u201d Fouts said. \u201cHe called it \u2018a knack.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
By his final year in college, Fouts had plans to marry fellow alumna Deborah Harris Fouts \u201965 and move straight into a top clinical psychology doctoral program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joe White was amazing . . . He had a tremendous effect on me.<\/p>\n
White supported his ambition, but not his approach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very realistic,\u201d Fouts said, \u201cin that he knew that my grades weren’t always the best all through my career.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
White suggested widening the field and considering other disciplines \u2014 which led Fouts to the University of Nevada, where researcher Allen Gardner was raising a chimpanzee named Washoe as a deaf human child while attempting to teach her sign language; he needed a graduate assistant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fouts flew to Reno for an interview, which didn\u2019t go well. \u201cI basically blew the interview,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Roger Fouts teaches hand signs to Washoe, a chimpanzee whose ability to communicate challenged long-held assumptions about animal cognition. (Photo by United Press International)<\/p>\n
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Fouts and Washoe receive a visit from the late Jane Goodall, who would write the foreword for Fouts’ memoir. (Photo courtesy of William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York)<\/p>\n
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Under Fouts’ care, Washoe, would eventually begin creating her own words: Swans became “water birds.” Radishes were \u201ccry hurt food.\u201d (Photo by Lee Balterman, Getty Images)<\/p>\n
A major breakthrough<\/p>\n
Before leaving for the airport, though, Gardner walked him to a fenced area where Washoe was playing. She spotted them, ran forward and leapt over the fence \u2014 not toward Gardner, but to Fouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe jumped into my arms,\u201d he said, still marveling at the encounter. \u201cI’m sure she saw that I needed a hug.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gardner may not have wanted Fouts for the job, but Washoe did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 20 hours a week, I was with Washoe. I changed diapers, prepared meals, played games.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caregivers signed constantly, modeling communication as part of daily life. Over time, Washoe acquired hundreds of signs and used them intentionally.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
She jumped into my arms. I’m sure she saw that I needed a hug.<\/p>\n
The real breakthrough came years later when she began generating her own language \u2014 swans as \u201cwater birds,\u201d Thanksgiving as \u201cBird Meat Day,\u201d and radishes as \u201ccry hurt food.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wasn\u2019t just imitating; she was communicating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Deborah as his collaborator, Fouts expanded his research, eventually landing at Central Washington University, where the couple founded the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute<\/a>, a sanctuary where chimps were allowed to interact with humans only when they chose to do so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Washoe would live out the rest of her years there, dying in the Foutses\u2019 arms in 2007 at age 42 \u2014 a loss they felt deeply, having come to view her as family.\u00a0<\/p>\n Image<\/p>\n Roger Fouts, left, and his wife, Deborah, at a memorial to the primate program they founded at Central Washington University. The university, where Fouts taught for many years, honored Washoe, as well as four other chimpanzees, following her death in 2017.<\/p>\n A shared commitment\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Fouts had begun using his platform to speak out against the scientific community\u2019s often-barbaric use of chimps.\u00a0In 1997, he co-authored \u201cNext of Kin,\u201d a book that framed chimpanzees as relatives \u2014 biological, emotional and moral.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Image<\/p>\n Although he was invited to serve on advisory panels and regulatory discussions, biomedical researchers framed his concerns as sentimentality.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey called me \u2018activist\u2019 and so on. As if there\u2019s something wrong with having compassion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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