Pat Scherer founded the International Center for Deafness and the Arts. (N.H. Scott & Hanekamp photo)

Patricia Ann “Pat” Scherer, founder of the International Center on Deafness and the Arts (ICO-DA), died April 26. She was 89.

Scherer, a Northbrook resident, championed therapies and programs to make learning easier, often through music and dance.

“The vibration that comes from music enters the brain in an area that is adjacent to areas of cognition and language, so both are stimulated simultaneously, so it’s easier to learn,” she said in 2014.

Scherer’s programs gave the start to actress Marlee Matlin, who won the Best Actress Oscar for “Children of a Lesser God” (1986), the only deaf actor to win an Academy Award who posted on Twitter her reaction to Scherer’s passing.

“I would not be where I am today if it were not for Dr. Pat Scherer,” Matlin tweeted after her death. “She introduced me & thousands of other children to theater, to master deaf thespian, Bernard Bragg, and to my life long mentor and dear friend @hwinkler4real and his wife. RIP dear Pat.”

I would not be where I am today if it were not for Dr. Pat Scherer. She introduced me & thousands of other children to theater, to master deaf thespian, Bernard Bragg, and to my life long mentor and dear friend @hwinkler4real and his wife. RIP dear Pat. ??https://t.co/0vDrP9axQw

— Marlee Matlin (@MarleeMatlin) April 26, 2020

Scherer had said she thought her purpose in life seemed pre-ordained. Born in Chicago, she made her debut as a dancer in a play at the Civic Opera House when she was no more than 7.

After another offer to act, her mother cut off that path to a career, and gave her piano lessons instead. She eventually won a scholarship to Northwestern University’s music school, but had to quit to work when her father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

She wound up teaching in rural Missouri, and was attracted to educating challenged children. When she applied to learn speech pathology at Northwestern, the man who had been behind her earlier scholarship recognized her and gave her a new one in the new field.

In 1967, she earned her PhD in deafness from Northwestern. She taught there from 1965-78 as an associate professor and director of the Teacher Preparation Program in Deafness.

In 1973, she founded the Center on Deafness, an encompassing facility staffed to work with deaf individuals. Another organization was founded on the same Northbrook site, Mental Health and Deafness Resources, Inc., in 1982. Later, organizational problems led to Scherer leaving COD with the mental health organization and the arts branch, ICODA, finding homes elsewhere in the same town.

Scherer was a leader in Northbrook’s Rotary club and a devoted member of its Village Presbyterian Church.

Scherer, nee Albright, 89, was married to William Scherer, who died in 2008. Her children include the late Cecilia (William) Strejc, as well as Kathleen (Paul) Herman.