Max Aaron Goldstein (April 19, 1870 – July 27, 1941) was best known for founding the Central Institute for the Deaf, his extensive study of ear, nose, and throat medicine, and for pioneering an "oral" approach to educating the deaf in the U.S. His parents, William and Hulda Goldstein, had immigrated to New Orleans from Germany prior his birth, but moved further inland to Missouri due to fear of the yellow fever outbreak occurring at the time in the southern United States.

[2] At age 22, he graduated from Missouri Medical College (now Washington University School of Medicine) then served a one-year internship at the St. Louis City Hospital.

Goldstein would instruct "each of the 16 students ranging in age from 6 to 18 years for 15 minutes each" and would also spend time with the teachers to educate them on the details of the acoustic stimulation method.

[4] In 1896, the same year as the birth of his only daughter, he would found one of his lifelong works; a medical journal dubbed The Laryngoscope, "in an effort to speed the dissemination of the rapidly expanding body of knowledge in otolaryngology".

[4] Only months after converting his home into his clinic space, an additional area was built onto the back side of the house for postoperative patients to temporarily live, which Goldstein respectively called "the hospital."

[4] Despite the Great Depression being at its peak, and philanthropy not being a common investment of time or money, Goldstein sought to further expand CID through fundraising.

[3][5] By 1940, clinical advances and expansion of the fields related to hearing and deafness continued to feed the growth of CID and more building space was once again needed.

Goldstein pushed to buy the land directly adjacent to the existing CID buildings, but a project of such a scale was turned down by the Board of Managers due to the fear of the looming World War II.

A decade later, in 1951, the land was used for the building of a cutting edge clinic and fully outfitted research lab, which contained one of only two anechoic chambers in the U.S.,  subsequently allowing dozens of important findings fortifying CID as a modern institution.

He also collected hundreds of Native American Relics, stamps, snuff bottles, mechanical banks, rare medical books, and glass paperweights from across the globe, which he also donated to CID, the Missouri Historical Society, and others upon his passing.

In an "interesting turn of events," Goldstein was the first Triological Society President to decline the offer of delivering the Presidential Address at the annual meeting.