This historical telling of Western Michigan University\u27s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences was written by Dr. Charles Van Riper and Dr. Frank B. Robinson. The brief history describes how Dr. Van Riper built a clinic and developed fledgling profession of speech pathology. Hired in 1936 by Dr. Sangren, Van Riper used his skills as a clinician and as a gifted teacher to recruit students, design courses and acquaint the public with the services offered at a mobile speech clinic. By 1938, the first students majoring in “speech correction” were graduated and employed in public schools. By 1939, the speech clinic was relocated to Health Service Building, later the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. Since then, Western’s substantive contributions have expanded its services into an internationally known clinic and graduate program

Robinson, Frank B.

Van Riper, Charles

English

ScholarWorks at WMU

Western Michigan University 
ScholarWorks at WMU 
Histories of Western Michigan University Western Michigan University 
1990 
Speech Pathology and Audiology at Western: A Brief History 
Charles Van Riper 
Western Michigan University 
Frank B. Robinson 
Western Michigan University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wmu-histories 
 Part of the Speech and Hearing Science Commons, and the Speech Pathology and Audiology 
Commons 
WMU ScholarWorks Citation 
Van Riper, Charles and Robinson, Frank B., "Speech Pathology and Audiology at Western: A Brief History" 
(1990). Histories of Western Michigan University. 1. 
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wmu-histories/1 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by 
the Western Michigan University at ScholarWorks at 
WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Histories of 
Western Michigan University by an authorized 
administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more 
information, please contact wmu-
scholarworks@wmich.edu. 
SPEECH PATHOLOGY AND AUDIOLOGY AT WESTERN: A BRIEF HISTORY 
(Note: the following brief narrative draws heavily upon archival materials pre-
pared at varying times by c. Van Riper and by F. Robinson--the first and the 
second Department Heads, respectively--under whose skillful direction and caring 
guidance the present Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology largely has 
evolved.) 
In 1936 a new president, Paul V. Sangren, initiated a significant period 
of growth at Western Michigan College of Education--revising its philosophy and 
goals and courses, beginning a campus building program, and bringing in a hand-
ful of younger faculty members. Among the new faculty was Charles Van Riper, 
a native of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, who--along with other pioneering students 
and faculty at the University of Iowa--recently . had developed one of the early . 
nuclei of the fledgling profession of speech pathology, the university speech 
clinic. Dr. Sangren'& charge to Dr. Van Riper is reputed to have been brief 
and to the point: "Build a clinic and a profession." 
The first quarters for the clinic were in a shed ''with broken windows and 
rats," which was attached to an old factory at the corner of Oakland and West 
Michigan near the railroad tracks. Even in this setting, and though burdened 
at times by his own stuttering, Van Riper's skills as a clinician and as a 
gifted teacher iwere soon recognized, as was his. dedication to excellence in 
education. 
The first few years were devoted to recruiting students, designing courses, 
acquainting the public with the services offered, and operating a mobile speech 
clinic which travelled throughout the Lower Peninsula diagnosing children's 
speech disorders and helping teachers, principals and parents to understand the 
problems of those who could not talk or hear normally. At the same time, by 
1938 the first students majoring in "speech correction" were graduated and 
employed in the public schools; and by 1939 the speech clinic had been relocated 
to occupy a portion of the third floor of the newly erected Health Service 
Building--the same builditi'g, renamed tl\e Speech and Hearing Center in 1971, which 
-2-
today is nearly totally occupied by facilities, faculty and staff of the Depart-
ment of Speech Pathology and Audiology. 
For some forty-three years, then, Western Michigan University bas actively 
fostered the development of quality education and clinical service in speech 
pathology and audiology. From an early focus which emphasized the professional 
training of baccalaureate level students for employment as public school speech 
therapists, the "Speech Clinic" (initially an administrative. subcomponent of 
Western's Speech Department) gradual1y evolved toward departmental status and 
toward broadened academic programming and professional preparation. In 1955 a 
.gradu~te program ("Teaching of Speech Correction") was initiated under the aegis 
of the College of Education. Even then the program was earning a national and 
even international reputation for excellence, although the major thrust continued 
to be the pre-service . training of personnel -for positions in education' with 
particular emphasis in the area of stuttering therapy. 
It was in 1963 that Western began to offer a master's degree which was 
independent from the College of Education--by which time the academic and clin-
ical practicum focus also was expanding to include educational and service 
programming in audiology and to encompass a broadening view of the habilitation 
and rehabilitation of individuals with speech, hearing, and 1anguage disorders. 
The development of speech pathology and audiology at Western essentially had 
paralleled--and often led--similar developments occurring across the state and 
the nation as this new profession sought to define itself under the tutelage 
and guidance of Van Riper and other pioneering clinicians. 
President Sa~gren's initial charge was indeed becoming realized. Western 
had contributed substantively to the emergence of an identifiable profession; 
and in 1979 as in 1936, the clinic remains the central focus of departmental 
programming. Clients Qf all ages with handicapping problems of speech, language .. 
or hearing continue to be served without fee, with the clinic providing a 
-3-
critically important teaching laboratory for graduate and undergraduate students. 
Included now among the diagnostic and therapeutic programs of the clinic are 
services for stutterers, for children with developmental speech and language 
problems, for children born with cleft palates, for adults with aphasia, for 
individuals with voice disorders. for hearing impaired children and adults. and 
for severely handicapped non-verbal persons. And. of course, even the immediate 
impact of this type of student-practicum/conununity-service activity continues 
to be felt far beyond the confines of the University through on-going liai~ons 
with affiliated off-campus centers and clinics. 
In 1965 an autonomous Department of Speech Pathology .and Audiology was for-
mally established by Western's Board of Trustees. In that same year, the 
master's degree was defined by the American Speech and Hearing Association as 
the minimum level of preparation acceptable for clinical practice in the speech 
and hearing profession. In 1966, by then the most widely published author in 
his field and an internationally acknowledged authority on the treatment of 
stuttering, Dr. Van Riper retired as Department Head with appointment as Distin-
guished University Professor. His successor, himself a widely recognized 
expert in stuttering, was Frank B. Robinson, for many years the Bead of the 
Speech and Hearing Clinic at Miami University in Oxford, _Ohio •. Dr. Robinson, 
who was to continue to serve as Department Head at Western until 1977, had done 
his undergraduate work at Western and had been an instructor here briefly during 
the forties. Robinson's return was marked by a reiteration and continuation of 
departmental efforts to nurture excellence and dedication in its students. 
Also in 1966 Western's graduate speech pathology program became the first 
in~ichigan (and one of the first six in the nation) to be accredited by the 
American Boards of Examiners in Speech Pathology .and Audiology (ABESPA)~ -· In 
1971, the graduate audiology program became similarly accredited. 
-4-
During the 1960's and early 1970's, the departmental faculty and staff grew 
and further diversified--as did the department's commitment to educational objec-
tives which recognized the complexity of the study of human communication and 
. 
which were appropriate to the nurturing of a sound academic discipline within 
the context of a simultaneously emerging multipurpose university. Speech and 
hearing science laboratory .facilities were established, course and practicum 
offerings were strengthened and diversified, federal grant support was success-
fully sought, and greater numbers of students began to enroll--including many 
persons from other states and from countries around the world. Western's repu-
tation for quality service and education continued to be reflected also, then 
as now, in. the types and numbers of clients of all ages served by the Language, 
Speech and Bearing Clinic. 
At the P!esent time, the Department numbers fourteen regular facul~y members, 
eight of whom hold the Ph.D. and six of whom bold the terminal professional 
master's degree, plus several part-time faculty, one electronics technician, 
four secretaries, and a number of graduate assistants. Substantial contributions 
to the program also are made by nine adjunct faculty members, including medical 
and dental representatives, and by countless professionals who provide student 
practicum opportunities and supervisory services ·in the iDDDediate geographic 
region and beyond. Some 130 undergraduate majors. are enrolled, along with an 
average of 40 full-time graduate students. During a typical semester, something 
over 300 clients are afforded on-campu~ clinical services under faculty super-
vision, and many other handicapped individuals are served by our students in 
off-campus practicum settings. 
Clinicians and researchers from around the world are frequent visitors to 
the Department, and the departmental faculty is itself significantly involved 
in scholarly and professional endeavors at the local, state and national levels, in 
' both inter-and intra-disciplinary contexts. Past program graduates may be found 
-5-
in essentially every state of the union and in several foreign countries. Their 
employment settings, as well as their professional accomplishments, are as 
varied as they are substantial. Many hold clinical positions in elementary and 
. 
secondary school systems, hospitals and rehabilitation centers; some are in 
private practice. Others are in agency and academic administrat~ve roles or 
are themselves now members of university faculties. In the aggregate, their 
performances and their human impacts constitute perhaps the most eloquent, and 
certainly a most relevant, testimony to the history~and to the future potential~ 
of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. For it is through our 
students--former, current, and yet to come--that the Department (and, for that 
matter, the University) truly is enabled, in Van Riper's·.words, to "play billiards 
with eternity." 
The speech clinic and department of speech pathology here at 
Western have attracted students from many lands and they 
have returned to their native countries to pioneer the field 
of speech pathology and audiology there. Some that come to 
mind were from Japan,Taiwan,China, the Philipine. India, 
Australia, South Africa, Kuwait,Egypt,Israel, Iran, France, 
Germany, Poland, Norway, Sweden, England, Denmark, Holland. 
Great Britain, Canada, Iceland. We have had several 
Fulbright scholars. Western has an international 
reputation in this field. 
Many of our former students have gone on to get their 
doctorates and to head or staff departments of speech 
pathology or audiology at other universities in this 
country. Two of them, Katharine Butler and Roland Van Hattum 
became presidents of our national organization, the American 
Speech and Hearing Association. Many have contributed 
significant research and publications. 


Speech Pathology and Audiology at Western: A Brief History

Western Michigan UniversityScholarWorks at WMUHistories of Western Michigan University Western Michigan University1990Speech Pathology and Audiology at Western: ABrief HistoryCharles Van RiperWestern Michigan UniversityFrank B. RobinsonWestern Michigan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wmu-historiesPart of the Speech and Hearing Science Commons, and the Speech Pathology and AudiologyCommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the WesternMichigan University at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted forinclusion in Histories of Western Michigan University by an authorizedadministrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, pleasecontact maira.bundza@wmich.edu.WMU ScholarWorks CitationVan Riper, Charles and Robinson, Frank B., "Speech Pathology and Audiology at Western: A Brief History" (1990). Histories of WesternMichigan University. 1.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wmu-histories/1SPEECH PATHOLOGY AND AUDIOLOGY AT WESTERN: A BRIEF HISTORY (Note: the following brief narrative draws heavily upon archival materials pre-pared at varying times by c. Van Riper and by F. Robinson--the first and the second Department Heads, respectively--under whose skillful direction and caring guidance the present Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology largely has evolved.) In 1936 a new president, Paul V. Sangren, initiated a significant period of growth at Western Michigan College of Education--revising its philosophy and goals and courses, beginning a campus building program, and bringing in a hand-ful of younger faculty members. Among the new faculty was Charles Van Riper, a native of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, who--along with other pioneering students and faculty at the University of Iowa--recently . had developed one of the early . nuclei of the fledgling profession of speech pathology, the university speech clinic. Dr. Sangren'& charge to Dr. Van Riper is reputed to have been brief and to the point: "Build a clinic and a profession." The first quarters for the clinic were in a shed ''with broken windows and rats," which was attached to an old factory at the corner of Oakland and West Michigan near the railroad tracks. Even in this setting, and though burdened at times by his own stuttering, Van Riper's skills as a clinician and as a gifted teacher iwere soon recognized, as was his. dedication to excellence in education. The first few years were devoted to recruiting students, designing courses, acquainting the public with the services offered, and operating a mobile speech clinic which travelled throughout the Lower Peninsula diagnosing children's speech disorders and helping teachers, principals and parents to understand the problems of those who could not talk or hear normally. At the same time, by 1938 the first students majoring in "speech correction" were graduated and employed in the public schools; and by 1939 the speech clinic had been relocated to occupy a portion of the third floor of the newly erected Health Service Building--the same builditi'g, renamed tl\e Speech and Hearing Center in 1971, which -2-today is nearly totally occupied by facilities, faculty and staff of the Depart-ment of Speech Pathology and Audiology. For some forty-three years, then, Western Michigan University bas actively fostered the development of quality education and clinical service in speech pathology and audiology. From an early focus which emphasized the professional training of baccalaureate level students for employment as public school speech therapists, the "Speech Clinic" (initially an administrative. subcomponent of Western's Speech Department) gradual1y evolved toward departmental status and toward broadened academic programming and professional preparation. In 1955 a .gradu~te program ("Teaching of Speech Correction") was initiated under the aegis of the College of Education. Even then the program was earning a national and even international reputation for excellence, although the major thrust continued to be the pre-service . training of personnel -for positions in education' with particular emphasis in the area of stuttering therapy. It was in 1963 that Western began to offer a master's degree which was independent from the College of Education--by which time the academic and clin-ical practicum focus also was expanding to include educational and service programming in audiology and to encompass a broadening view of the habilitation and rehabilitation of individuals with speech, hearing, and 1anguage disorders. The development of speech pathology and audiology at Western essentially had paralleled--and often led--similar developments occurring across the state and the nation as this new profession sought to define itself under the tutelage and guidance of Van Riper and other pioneering clinicians. President Sa~gren's initial charge was indeed becoming realized. Western had contributed substantively to the emergence of an identifiable profession; and in 1979 as in 1936, the clinic remains the central focus of departmental programming. Clients Qf all ages with handicapping problems of speech, language .. or hearing continue to be served without fee, with the clinic providing a -3-critically important teaching laboratory for graduate and undergraduate students. Included now among the diagnostic and therapeutic programs of the clinic are services for stutterers, for children with developmental speech and language problems, for children born with cleft palates, for adults with aphasia, for individuals with voice disorders. for hearing impaired children and adults. and for severely handicapped non-verbal persons. And. of course, even the immediate impact of this type of student-practicum/conununity-service activity continues to be felt far beyond the confines of the University through on-going liai~ons with affiliated off-campus centers and clinics. In 1965 an autonomous Department of Speech Pathology .and Audiology was for-mally established by Western's Board of Trustees. In that same year, the master's degree was defined by the American Speech and Hearing Association as the minimum level of preparation acceptable for clinical practice in the speech and hearing profession. In 1966, by then the most widely published author in his field and an internationally acknowledged authority on the treatment of stuttering, Dr. Van Riper retired as Department Head with appointment as Distin-guished University Professor. His successor, himself a widely recognized expert in stuttering, was Frank B. Robinson, for many years the Bead of the Speech and Hearing Clinic at Miami University in Oxford, _Ohio •. Dr. Robinson, who was to continue to serve as Department Head at Western until 1977, had done his undergraduate work at Western and had been an instructor here briefly during the forties. Robinson's return was marked by a reiteration and continuation of departmental efforts to nurture excellence and dedication in its students. Also in 1966 Western's graduate speech pathology program became the first in~ichigan (and one of the first six in the nation) to be accredited by the American Boards of Examiners in Speech Pathology .and Audiology (ABESPA)~ -· In 1971, the graduate audiology program became similarly accredited. -4-During the 1960's and early 1970's, the departmental faculty and staff grew and further diversified--as did the department's commitment to educational objec-tives which recognized the complexity of the study of human communication and . which were appropriate to the nurturing of a sound academic discipline within the context of a simultaneously emerging multipurpose university. Speech and hearing science laboratory .facilities were established, course and practicum offerings were strengthened and diversified, federal grant support was success-fully sought, and greater numbers of students began to enroll--including many persons from other states and from countries around the world. Western's repu-tation for quality service and education continued to be reflected also, then as now, in. the types and numbers of clients of all ages served by the Language, Speech and Bearing Clinic. At the P!esent time, the Department numbers fourteen regular facul~y members, eight of whom hold the Ph.D. and six of whom bold the terminal professional master's degree, plus several part-time faculty, one electronics technician, four secretaries, and a number of graduate assistants. Substantial contributions to the program also are made by nine adjunct faculty members, including medical and dental representatives, and by countless professionals who provide student practicum opportunities and supervisory services ·in the iDDDediate geographic region and beyond. Some 130 undergraduate majors. are enrolled, along with an average of 40 full-time graduate students. During a typical semester, something over 300 clients are afforded on-campu~ clinical services under faculty super-vision, and many other handicapped individuals are served by our students in off-campus practicum settings. Clinicians and researchers from around the world are frequent visitors to the Department, and the departmental faculty is itself significantly involved in scholarly and professional endeavors at the local, state and national levels, in ' both inter-and intra-disciplinary contexts. Past program graduates may be found -5-in essentially every state of the union and in several foreign countries. Their employment settings, as well as their professional accomplishments, are as varied as they are substantial. Many hold clinical positions in elementary and . secondary school systems, hospitals and rehabilitation centers; some are in private practice. Others are in agency and academic administrat~ve roles or are themselves now members of university faculties. In the aggregate, their performances and their human impacts constitute perhaps the most eloquent, and certainly a most relevant, testimony to the history~and to the future potential~ of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. For it is through our students--former, current, and yet to come--that the Department (and, for that matter, the University) truly is enabled, in Van Riper's·.words, to "play billiards with eternity." The speech clinic and department of speech pathology here at Western have attracted students from many lands and they have returned to their native countries to pioneer the field of speech pathology and audiology there. Some that come to mind were from Japan,Taiwan,China, the Philipine. India, Australia, South Africa, Kuwait,Egypt,Israel, Iran, France, Germany, Poland, Norway, Sweden, England, Denmark, Holland. Great Britain, Canada, Iceland. We have had several Fulbright scholars. Western has an international reputation in this field. Many of our former students have gone on to get their doctorates and to head or staff departments of speech pathology or audiology at other universities in this country. Two of them, Katharine Butler and Roland Van Hattum became presidents of our national organization, the American Speech and Hearing Association. Many have contributed significant research and publications. 

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Speech Pathology and Audiology at Western: A Brief History

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