In Memoriam: William H. Perkins, 85

By Jackson DeMos on October 23, 2008 11:36 AM

William H. Perkins, a professor of speech pathology who was a nationally recognized authority on the speech disorder stuttering, died Oct. 6 as a result of complications from a fall in Baldwin Hills. He was 85.

Perkins was professor emeritus of speech pathology and otolaryngology in the Keck School of Medicine of USC and speech communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. He was awarded distinguished emeritus status in 1991.

“Dr. Perkins was a warm and friendly colleague and an outstanding departmental citizen,” said professor Tom Hollihan, who worked with Perkins at USC Annenberg. “He possessed a quick wit and a great sense of humor.”

As director of The Stuttering Center at USC, he oversaw a speech clinic that specialized in the treatment of stuttering, also known as stammering. At the end of his career, Perkins became an outspoken critic of his field, calling into question the conventional understanding of stammering and how it should be treated.

“I realized that the road we were on was not leading to an understanding of the fundamental nature of stammering; it was a circular track that was being repaved regularly,” he wrote. “I left the paving crew to blaze my own trail in a different direction by following markers of those who stammer.”

He went on to advocate a scientific approach that accounted for the subjective experience of the stutterer. “If science requires objectifying stutterers to the extent of divesting them of their subjective experience because it cannot be measured traditionally by what is readily observed,” he said, “then science is the loser.”

Born in Kansas City, Mo., in 1923, Perkins often attributed his stubbornness in his quest to solve stuttering to his Missouri roots.

After earning his B.S. in 1943 from Missouri State College, Perkins enlisted in the Navy and served in World War II as a gunnery officer stationed in the South Pacific. He retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1983 as a lieutenant commander.

Perkins earned his M.A. from the University of Missouri in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1952. He once wrote that he turned to “speech pathology as an employable alternative” to an acting career, in which he dabbled during his college years. It was on the stage that he met his wife, Jill Thompson.

Perkins was a fellow of the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association and a member of the American Psychological Association, Acoustical Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of University Professors, American Cleft Palate Association and Sigma Xi.

Perkins came to USC in 1952 as an assistant professor and was named an associate professor in 1956 and a professor of communicative disorders in 1960. He received a Dart Outstanding Teaching Award for innovative teaching in 1973.

“Dr. Perkins was known throughout the world for his pioneering research and writings in speech disorders,” said J. Wesley Robb, a distinguished emeritus professor of religion who has been a friend and colleague of Perkins since 1955. “He was a model teacher-scholar, and in a sense he was a Renaissance man in that he had an inquisitive mind that went beyond the borders of his own discipline.”

Perkins was editor of the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders from 1977 to 1981. He received the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s highest honor in 1973.

In addition to his own publications, he was a regular contributor to the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders and the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, both published by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the Journal of Behavioral Research and Therapy.

After retiring in 1988, Perkins devoted his career to solving what he called “the unsolvable problem of stammering.” It was his controversial book, Tongue Wars: Recovery From Stammering, that challenged the profession to reconsider long-held beliefs.

During his tenure at USC, Perkins participated in an informal discussion group with faculty members of diverse backgrounds. “The thing that was intriguing about Dr. Perkins was his broad intellectual interest,” Robb said. Discussions focused on a range of topics from art and music to religion and political science. “It was in that context that we became close friends and colleagues.”

Perkins is survived by his wife Jill and sons Scott, Kyle, Christopher and daughter-in-law Denise. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Alzheimer’s research.

TAGS: education, research

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