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Louis W. Hill Research Professor, University of Iowa. B.A., M.A., Ph.D. degrees, University of Iowa (Ph.D., 1931 with combined major in Clinical Psychology and Speech Pathology and a minor in Physiology).
Professional affiliations: President (1950) and Fellow, with Clinical Certification in Speech, American Speech and Hearing Association; Founder and Chairman, American Speech and Hearing Foundation; Member of Board of Directors, American Boards of Examiners in Speech Pathology and Audiology (1960-61); Diplomate in Clinical Psychology, American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology; Fellow, American Psychological Association; President (1945-47) and member of Board of Directors, International Society for General Semantics; Consultant in Speech Pathology, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., (1954-61); Central Office Consultant in Speech Pathology, Veterans Administration (1959--); Consultant National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, (1957); Consultant, U.S. Office of Education (1957-58); Member, National Advisory Council, Vocational Rehabilitation Administration (1957-61); Member, Professional Advisory Committee, National Society for Crippled Children and Adults, 1963--; Sigma Xi; Phi Beta Kappa; Honors of the Association Award, American Speech and Hearing Association (1946); listed in Who's Who in America, American Men of Science, Current Biography (April, 1959).
Editorial: Chairman of the Publications Board (1959-62) and Editor of the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders (1943-48), American Speech and Hearing Association; Member of the Editorial Board of ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, International Society for General Semantics (1943-58); Associate Editor of Quarterly Journal of Speech (1950-56), Speech Association of America; member of International Board of Editors of Rehabilitation section of Excerpta Medica (1958--); Founding Member of the Board of Directors, Deafness Speech and Hearing Publications, Inc., publishers of Deafness Speech and Hearing Abstracts.
Publications: over 150 professional and magazine articles and 100 or so book reviews in technical journals, New York Times Book Review, etc. Main books: Because I Stutter (Appleton, 1930); People in Quandaries (Harper, 1946); Speech Handicapped School Children, editor and co-author, (Harper, 1948, revised edition, 1956); Stuttering in Children and Adults: Thirty Years of Research at the University of Iowa, editor and co-author, (University of Minnesota Press, 1955); Your Most Enchanted Listener (Harper, 1956); The Onset of Stuttering : Research Findings and Implications (University of Minnesota Press, 1959 ; Stuttering and What You Can Do About It (University of Minnesota Press, 1961; Doubleday paperback edition, 1962); Diagnostic Methods in Speech Pathology, editor and co-author, (Harper and Row, 1963).
Lectures: about 400, plus CBS-TV Film "New Hope for Stutterers," in "The Search" series, other radio and TV programs, and convention papers; Research Management Seminar instructor, E.I. duPont deNemours & Co.; consultant on communication problems in industry and education; series of lectures in General Semantics course broadcast over University of Iowa Radio Station WSUI, 1956 and 1959, and recorded on tapes available from Extension Division, University of Iowa.
Research: major areas of research are stuttering and communication processes and disorders. Theses directed or co-directed: M.A., over 100; Ph.D., 31.
Clubs: Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.; Triangle Club and University Athletic Club, Iowa City.
Born April 16, 1906, at Roxbury, Kansas. Married; two children.
Address: Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, East Hall, University of 1owa, Iowa City, Iowa. Home: 508 Melrose Court, Iowa City, Iowa.
Professional Affiliations and Appointments
1. University or Iowa: Louis W. Hill Research Professor, 1963--; Professor, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology and Department of Psychology, 1958-63; Professor, Department of Speech and Dramatic Arts and Department of Psychology, 1945-58; Research Assistant, Research Associate, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, 1926-43; Director, Speech Clinic, 1943-1955; Chairman, Council on Speech Pathology and Audiology, 1951-55; Secretary, Council on Children and Youth, 1954-55, and member, 1952-55; Committee on Educational Policy, College of Liberal Arts, 1951-54; Member, Committee on General Semantics, College of Medicine, 1957--; Member, Committee on Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, 1957--; Member, Committee on Honorary Degrees and Awards, 1957--, Member, Committee on Relationships with the Federal Government, 1959-61; Chairman, Council on Rehabilitation, 1959-61, Member, 1959--.
2. United States Government: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: Member or the National Advisory Council on Vocational Rehabilitation, Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, 1957-61; Consultant in Speech and Hearing, Office of Education, 1957-58; Member, Committee on the Study of Competencies Required of Teachers of Handicapped Children, Sub-Committee on Teachers of the Speech Handicapped, Office of Education, 1952-54; Member, Advisory Council on Participation of National Organizations of the Mid-century White House Conference on Children and Youth, 1950; Consultant in Speech and Hearing, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, 1957. U.S. Army: Consultant in Speech Pathology, Audiology and Speech Center, Walter Reed Army Hospital, 1954-61. National Office Consultant in Speech Pathology, Veterans Administration, 1960--. Chairman, section on Vocational Rehabilitation for Handicapped Youth, White House Conference on Children and Youth, 1960. Member, Evaluation Committee, Special Education and Rehabilitation Study, Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives, 1960.
3. American Speech and Hearing Association: President, 1950; Member of the Executive Council, 1943-51 and 1958-62; Chairman, Publications Board, 1959-62; Editor of the Journal of Speech Disorders 1943-47, and of the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 1948; Chairman, White House Conference Committee, 1950; Founder, Speech Correction Fund, 1945; Chairman, Committee on Speech Correction Fund, 1948-58; Chairman, American Speech and Hearing Foundation, 1958--; Member, Committee on Planning, 1953-56; Chairman, Committee on Civil Service Requirements for Speech Pathologists, 1955-56; Chairman, Special Committee on Scholarships, 1956; Member, Committee on Liaison with Federal Agencies, 1957-62; Member, Committee on Honors, 1958, 1963; Member, Committee on Budget, 1959-62; Member, Committee on Research, 1958-62; Member, Committee on Committees, 1959-62; Clinical Certification in Speech; Fellow, Honors of the Association Award, 1946.
4. American Boards of Examiners in Speech Pathology and Audiology: Member, Board of Directors, 1960-61.
5. Excerpta Medica, Section on Rehabilitation: Member, International Board of Editors, 1958--.
6. Deafness Speech and Hearing Publications, Inc., publisher of Deafness Speech and Hearing Abstracts: Founding Member, Board of Directors, President, 1962.
7. American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology: Diplomate in Clinical Psychology.
8. Rehabilitation Codes: Member, Committee on Speech, 1961--.
9. National Society for Crippled Children and Adults: Member, Professional Advisory Council, 1963--.
10. American Psychological Association: Fellow; Member; Sections on Clinical Psychology and Psychological Aspects of Disability.
11. Midwestern Psychological Association: Member.
12. Iowa Psychological Association: Member.
13. Iowa Speech and Hearing Association: Member.
14. Iowa Society for Crippled Children and Adults: President, 1953-54; Vice President, 1951-52, Member, Board of Directors, 1949-52 and 1957-59.
15. Iowa Department of Public Instruction: Consultant, Special Education, 1947--.
16. International Society for General Semantics: President, 1945-47; Member of Governing Board, 1945--; Member of Editorial Board, 1943-58; Co-founder and Chairman, 1946-49, and Member of Board, 1946--, Semantics Book Club.
17. Institute of General Semantics: Member, Board of Directors, 1943-50.
18. Speech Association of America: Member; Associate Editor, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1950-56.
19. Central States Speech Association: Member.
20. National Society for the Study of Communication: Member.
21. National Rehabilitation Association: Member.
22. International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled: Member, U.S. Committee; Member, U.S. Committee on Deafness, Speech and Hearing, 1962--.
23. International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics: Member.
24. American Association of Cleft Palate Rehabilitation: Member.
25. Volta Speech Association for the Deaf: Member, Board of Directors, 1950-51.
26. Iowa Committee on Conservation of Hearing: Member, 1950-55.
27. President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped: Member, 1950--.
28. Iowa Association for Mental Health: Member, Professional Advisory Committee, 1954--.
29. Phi Delta Kappa Dictionary of Education: Chairman, Sub-committee on definition of speech correction terms, 1945.
30. American Association for the Advancement of Science: Fellow.
31. Iowa Academy of Science: Fellow.
32. American Association of University Professors : Member.
33. Sigma Xi: Member.
34. Phi Beta Kappa: Member.
35. Unitarian Church, Iowa City: Member, Board of Directors, 1952-55.
36. Optimist International: President, Iowa City Chapter, 1952-53.
37. Triangle Club, University of Iowa: Member. 38. University Athletic Club, Iowa City: Member.
39. Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.: Member.
Convention Papers and Lectures
Papers read before the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics
(Padua, Italy), American Psychological Association, Midwestern Psychological
Television and Radio
"New Hope for Stutterers," CBS-TV series, "The Search," 1954-55; TV shows on stuttering for Iowa State Medical Society, WOI-TV, Ames, Iowa, 1952, 1954; TV show on stuttering, WOC-TV, Davenport, Iowa, 1950; TV interviews, Columbus Ohio, 1950, Stations KRNT-TV and WHO-TV, Des Moines, Iowa, 1955 and 1962, WOI-TV, Ames, Iowa, 1955 and 1958 and TV stations in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland, Orlando, Florida, etc.; radio broadcasts in Boston, Columbus, Terre Haute, New York, Los Angeles, Des Moines, Ames, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, etc.; radio interviews by Mary Margaret McBride, New York, 1951, 1953, and Station WNYC, 1955; National Association of Educational Broadcasters, Cooper Union, speech, New York, 1953; contributor to "The Child Beyond," radio series produced by Radio House, University of Texas for National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 1955; Stuttering Team, University of Iowa, NBC network from Chicago, 1950; Course in General Semantics, University of Iowa, Station WSUI, forty classroom lectures, 1956-57, and 1959-60, tape recorded by Extension Division, University of Iowa; two-hour teaching tape on stuttering made for Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, New York University, and U.S. Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, 1962; etc.
Listed in
America's Young Men, American Men of Science, Who's Who in the Western Hemisphere, Who's Who in America, World Who's Who, Current Biography (April, 1959), etc.
Education
Public elementary and high school, Roxbury, Kansas; graduated from high school, 1924; valedictorian; president of senior class; captain of basketball and baseball teams. McPherson (Kansas) College, 1924-26; associate editor of college newspaper and feature editor of college annual. University of Iowa, 1926-31; B.A., 1928, English major; M.A., 1929, Psychology major; Ph.D., 1931, combined major in Clinical Psychology and Speech Pathology and minor in Physiology. Phi Beta Kappa; Sigma Xi; editor of the University of Iowa literary magazine, 1928-29; honors in English; scholarships and assistantships.
Vocational History
Lived on stock and wheat farm (Kansas) until entered college in 1924. Summer, 1925, worked as printer's assistant, McPherson, Kansas. University of Iowa: research assistant to Professor George D. Stoddard, Department of Psychology and College of Education, 1926-27; course assistant to Dean P.C. Packer, College of Education, summer, 1927; scholarship, Department of Psychology, fall, 1928; half-time research assistantship in adult education, December 1928 to July 1929 and full-time from July 1929 to July 1930, under Professor George D. Stoddard, then Director of the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station, and Professor Charles Robbins, College of Education; half-time research assistantship in department of Psychology, 1930-31 (work done in Speech Clinic under Dr. L.E. Travis); Research Associate, Speech Clinic, 1931-37; Assistant Professor jointly in Departments of Psychology, Speech, and Child Welfare, 1937-39; Associate Professor, same departments, 1939-45; Professor of Speech Pathology and Psychology, 1945-63; Louis W. Hill Research Professor, 1963--. Technical Director, Iowa Remedial Education Program, a diagnostic survey and re-educational demonstration project sponsored by the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station and the Iowa State Department of Public Instruction, 1939-42; Director, Speech Clinic, 1943-55. Chairman, Council on Speech Pathology and Audiology, 1951-55. Chairman, Council on Rehabilitation, 1959-61. Guest professor, University of Southern California, summer, 1948; University of Colorado summer, 1956; University of Hawaii, 1963. Consultant in Speech Pathology, U.S. Office of Education, December 1957 to June 1958. Consultant in Speech Pathology, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, 1957. Consultant in Speech Pathology, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1954-61. Central Office Consultant in Speech Pathology, Veterans Administration, 1959--. Member, National Advisory Council on Vocational Rehabilitation, U.S. Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, 1957-61. Member, Evaluation Committee, Special Education and Rehabilitation Study, Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives, 1960. Consultant in communication, E.I. duPont deNemours and Co., Electronic Teaching Laboratories, IBM, Western Electric Co., etc.
Areas of Teaching
Speech pathology and audiology; communication disorders; stuttering research, theory, and clinical procedures; general semantics and the process of symbolization; counseling in clinical speech and hearing; clinical psychology and personality disorders; research and clinical seminars in semantics and speech pathology. Current courses and seminars: Clinical Counseling in Problems of Communication, General Semantics -- Symbolic and Communicative Processes, Seminar in Symbolic and Communicative Processes; participating instructor in Introduction to Speech Pathology and Audiology and in Introduction to Research.
Research and Publications
Major fields of research and publication have been speech pathology, general semantics, symbolic and communicative processes, and personality, most of the studies having dealt with stuttering, language behavior, and clinical counseling; over 130 research, clinical and theoretical articles, books, and monographs since 1931. Research supported by grants from the Louis W. and Maud Hill Family Foundation, the U.S. Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, and the Easter Seal Foundation.
Clinical Experience
Since 1931, clinical work with stutterers in University of Iowa Speech Clinic; work with adjustment problems of students. Research on language behavior has involved study of psychotic and psychoneurotic patients. As Director of the Speech Clinic and Chairman of the Council on Speech Pathology and Audiology, 1943-55, carried responsibility for general supervision and policy governing the clinical services, graduate and non-thesis research, and the professional training program in speech pathology and audiology involving 100-150 under-graduate and graduate majors. Currently engaged in research and related teaching, clinical and professional activities in areas of symbolic and communicative processes, stuttering and other problems of communication, and the communicative interactions in clinical counseling.
If I may be said to have a hobby in the usual sense of that word it is the use of the tape recorder in the classroom and clinic and generally as an instrument ingeniously designed to facilitate personal growth and development. I think the one thing that would go farthest to improve education in this country and in the world would be to place a tape recorder in front of every teacher and insure that at least once in a while the teacher would listen to what he or she has said and the tone and manner of speaking. To a very large degree what we mean by thinking consists of talking to ourselves, and as a machine specifically designed to enable us to talk to ourselves more effectively the tape recorder is a potential means to marked improvement in human thinking.
Beyond that, and still in the realm of hobby-like preoccupations, I enjoy people of all varieties wherever I find them, and I enjoy lecturing to people, consulting with them, teaching and learning with them, writing for them and reading what they have written. And I think most people would benefit if much more were done to encourage broad as opposed to prematurely specialized education, particularly at the undergraduate level.
My most important television appearance was in "The Search" series for CBS, and my most worthwhile radio broadcasting has been done from my classroom at the University of Iowa where my course in General Semantics was aired over Radio Station WSUI in 1956 and again in 1959, and each time the lectures were tape recorded. The tapes are available from the Extension Division of the University, and are ordered by corporations and government agencies as well as educational institutions and individuals.
I have traveled in Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, and Europe. I did well in school and I do poorly elsewhere in Latin, French, and German.
I consider my profession of speech pathology and communication science to be the most distinctively human profession, because the symbolization function mediated by the nervous system, which make speech and communication possible in the human sense, is the only one of the bodily functions that distinguishes man from animals and other forms of life. In this sense, disorders of speech and language are the only distinctively human disorders.
I believe that symbolization and communication are to the social sciences what matter and energy are to the physical sciences. I take for granted that by all odds the most significant scientific advances of the future will occur in the social and behavioral sciences. If we don't bring off these advances in time we probably will not survive.
One of the most important conclusions that I draw from my long experience in the scientific study of the stuttering problem and other disorders of speech and language is the view that a particularly fruitful approach to the study of communicative behavior is that of the investigation of its disorders. The normal is never so clearly seen as when it is illuminated by contrast with the abnormal.
To me, the most tragic and fateful of the failures of education in our society has been the enormously unwise and wasteful lag in applying the best that we know about the only distinctively human functions of speech and language -- and of communication in the broadest sense -- to the day to day political, economic, educational, medical, scientific, and ordinary problems which are so heavily symbolic and communicative in their fundamental character. Not only have we been excruciatingly slow in applying the best that we have learned, but we have placed the understanding of our symbolic and communicative processes relatively low in our scale of values so that we have not advanced the research and the creative thinking about the findings from research that enable us to understand more and more adequately our symbolic and communicative natures. In my judgment, no one is so impractical as the "practical" man to whom basic problems of communication are to be dismissed as "mere semantics."
Among my more important current activities is the work I am doing as the national consultant in speech pathology for the Veterans Administration. In this capacity I am trying to help the Veterans Administration, which controls one-eighth of all the hospital beds in the United States, to make a beginning at long last in meeting the needs of patients who have speech, voice, language, and hearing impairments. Without due attention to the symbolic processes which distinguish man from animals, medicine tends to be veterinary medicine, and I feel certain that to the historian of 2000 years from now one of the most incredible facts about our time will be the relative disregard by physicians of the role of the bodily process of symbolization in health and disease.
At the University of Iowa I have served for the past two years as Chairman of the Council on Rehabilitation and I am actively participating at the present time in developing an Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center to serve the disabled and the aging persons who have need of more effectively rehabilitating and ennobling programs than are now available for most of them. My special research interests in this project have to do with changes in speech and language behavior in relation to the aging process. I believe that the most important thing for an aging person to do is keep in communicative relationship with those about him as effectively as possible.
With Drs. Frederic L. Darley and D. C. Spriestersbach, I am at the present moment engaged in reading proof on a new book, Diagnostic Methods in Speech Pathology, which I hope will be of some value in fostering the further scientific and clinical study of man's communicative disorders. My recent book, Stuttering and What You Can Do About It (University of Minnesota Press, 1961; Doubleday Dolphin paperback edition, 1962) is currently being translated into Japanese, and I am receiving an increasing amount of mail from all over the world which indicates a universal need for clinical services by children and adults who stutter and have other communicative problems, and I am sure that the increasing demand for such services will in due time bring them into existence. As President of Deafness Speech and Hearing Publications, Inc. which publishes a worldwide abstracting service in this field, and as a member of the United States Committee on Deafness Speech and Hearing of the International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, I am with much pleasure doing all I can to bring the possibility of more satisfying communication within reach of an ever larger number of persons who are handicapped in speech, language, and hearing.
I am currently working on several technical books and articles -- and some day I hope very much to write a novel.