Favorite Story

By Ted Peters

My favorite Dean Williams story occurred towards the end of his career. It involved his response to a question regarding his views on having 100 percent fluency as a target for speech therapy. Dean said, "As an elementary school child I went to the University of Iowa for speech therapy. I also continued to go there for therapy in junior high school and high school. Then I went to the University of Iowa for my bachelor's, master's and doctor's degrees in speech pathology. I had additional therapy during this period."

Dean continued, "After completing my Ph.D., I left Iowa for a few years and taught at two other universities. I then returned to the University of Iowa to teach. I have been teaching at Iowa for many years. During all of these years, I have continued to work on my speech. I overheard someone say in the clinic the other day that if I continue to improve, they are going to dismiss me from therapy soon."

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from Letting Go, Volume 14, Number 10, October 1994 reprinted with permission of the NSP