Charles Van Riper
| Charles Gage Van Riper | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 1, 1905 |
| Died | September 25, 1994 (aged 88) |
| Other names | Cully Gage |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Speech therapist |
| Known for | Pioneering the development of speech pathology |
Charles Gage Van Riper (December 1, 1905 – September 25, 1994) was a renowned speech therapist who became internationally known as a pioneer in the development of speech pathology. A severe stutterer throughout his career, he is described as having had the most influence of any speech-language pathologist in the field of stuttering.
Charles Van Riper, known to his family as Cully, grew up in Champion Township, Michigan. He was the son of Champion's physician, known as "Dr. Van". Charles began to stutter at two years of age, and had a "miserable childhood" growing up in the midst of local superstition about stutterers. Even though he stuttered throughout his schooling years, he did very well academically, reading voraciously and showing great talent for writing. He subsequently attended the Northern State Normal School, and then the University of Michigan where he won honors for creative writing and graduated with a Master of Arts in English. After graduation, he taught high school English in Saline, Michigan, developing many techniques for dealing with his stuttering while teaching. Although he was regarded as a proficient and innovative teacher, the stress of his stuttering and his fear of speaking in many situations, made him unhappy at teaching.
A severe stutterer, Charles attended two institutes for stutterers, the Bogue Institute of Stammerers in Indianapolis and the Millard School in Milwaukee, but these institutions did little good; at the time, "nobody had actually taken the trouble to learn about stuttering, so nobody knew how to cure it". He subsequently joined a graduate program in speech pathology at Iowa, where he and other graduate students tried to develop "practical techniques" of a treatment for stuttering. These attempts proved successful, and after several years in Iowa, Charles received his Ph.D. in speech pathology.
In 1936, Charles was hired by the Western State Normal School in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He founded and headed its speech clinic, and was the first chair of its speech pathology and audiology department. During his subsequent career he became internationally known as a pioneer in the development of the science of speech pathology; he worked with thousands of stutterers, did research, and published a large number of books, articles and films on the subject. Under the pseudonym "Cully Gage", Charles also wrote The Northwoods Reader, a series of books based on life in Champion.
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