Morris Frank grew up caring for his blind mother. When he was young, he lost sight in his right eye when he ran into a tree branch while horse-riding. At age 16, he lost sight in his other eye due to a boxing accident. At Vanderbilt University, he became frustrated with having to use young men as assistants. They were often lazy and inattentive. In 1927, his father read about a school in Germany that paired blinded WWI veterans with guide dogs. At age 19, Frank travelled to Dorothy Harrison Eustis’ dog training school in Switzerland. He was paired off with a female German shepherd named Kiss. Frank changed the dog’s name to Buddy. In 1928, Frank and Buddy returned to the U.S. to be greeted by newspaper reporters. Frank accepted the dare to cross a busy New York City street. Buddy was up to the task and the pair launched a publicity tour to highlight the needs of the disabled. One year later, Frank and Eustis founded The Seeing Eye to train guide dogs. Frank and Buddy traveled 50,000 miles in the next ten years to show the efficacy of seeing-eye dogs. A few days before Buddy died in 1938, he became the first guide dog to make a commercial airplane flight.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/morris-frank-and-buddy-statue
https://americacomesalive.com/buddy-the-first-seeing-eye-dog/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_dog
the statue of Morris Frank and Buddy
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