In 1967, with assistance from Deaf leader Vincent Spicuzza and his friends, Reverend Raymond Gruenke, C.S.S.R. set up a Community Center for the Deaf (CCD) on the property of Saint Alphonsus Rock Church located at Cook Avenue and Grand Avenue. When different organizations gathered for the first time at a meeting at CCD, they were known as the CCD Committee members. Those members adopted the title, "Roundtable Representatives of the CCD’’ with its abbreviated name as "RTR" on April 24, 1967. In 1979, the RTR committee decided to move their evening meeting sites to Blue Cross and Blue Shield and later to Concordia Seminary’s Sieck Hall. RTR continued to use CCD gym for large meetings, workshops, printing RTR newsletters, and fundraising. In late 1980’s, it was renamed "Saint Louis Metro Round Table Representatives on Deafness." Reverend Gruenke died in 1988. Since CCD was built on the Redemptionist Order’s property, the Redemptionist Order decided to have the neighborhood community to utilize the former CCD building. Throughout the years after Rev. Gruenke’s death, RTR refused to allow RTR organization dissolve. They held tightly to their dream with a desire of owning a Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. RTR meetings were then moved to the Hearing and Speech Center on Manchester Road for a few years. The structure of RTR is made up of a Board of Directors, including Officers and Directors, Representatives, and Committee Members from various organizations. RTR is a unique organization in the Saint Louis Metro area because the people, who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, work together to provide a high quality service to the Deaf community. The majority (51% or more) of the RTR Board are Deaf. Hearing people are welcome to participate in RTR to serve the Deaf Community.