Memories of J. David Williams
I first met Dave and DJ in October 1989 when I attended my 1st convention on stuttering at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. I have many fond memories of their hospitality during the weekend. This convention enabled me to focus on my stuttering and doing something positive about it. I will always be very grateful for meeting them.
I remember J. David from my earliest NSP conventions. He was the sweetest man! I'm so lucky to have had an opportunity to meet him and talk to him!
I "met" Dave on-line when he and I participated in the same ISAD On-line Conference in 2008. It was my first time presenting a paper, and he commented that it was very well written and that I was clearly on a journey. We then kept "bumping into" each other, as the both of us responded to just about every paper on the conference that year. He joked and wondered which one of us would "read them all and comment first". I think it was a tie!
He sent me an email off-line, and we enjoyed a great banter back and forth. He noticed that I was also a blogger and asked for the links to my blog pieces. He would read and comment on them, often offering his critique. Then, I started getting emails from him that he said were actually DJ's words, that he painstakingly typed out for her. He would read them to her and she wanted to give me feedback. Pretty soon, we exchanged phone numbers and began chatting regularly. Sometimes, when I called, DJ would get on the extension and we would have a three-way. Dave was wonderful - never once did it feel like I was talking to this renowned, prestigious pioneer in the stuttering field. We talked like we were friends. And we were, even though we had never met. Dave and DJ sent me pictures so I knew what they looked like, and they watched some of of my videos, so they knew what I looked like. And both would always say that I stuttered just fine, that my stuttering was actually quite pleasant to listen to. High praise from two very experienced professionals in the field.
Dave really took a shine to me, I think. He started sending me copies of stories he wrote and had published in magazines many years earlier- many about his childhood passions and his love for flying and airplanes. He painstakingly scanned them into his computer and emailed them to me - sometimes he told me it took hours and several tries to do it - so I knew sharing them was really important. I felt honored actually, and really enjoyed the stories of his childhood, such a different time period. He was proud of those pieces.
Several times Dave and DJ invited me to visit them in their home - they would allow me use of their car, room, etc. Unfortunately, it never happened that I got there. They had kept the house even after moving into an assisted living retirement facility. Dave had some trouble setting up his computer in the "new digs", and sometimes I would come home from work and find a message on my answering machine from him, asking about a computer or email issue. I was happy he felt he could call me and I always called back, even if I had no clue how to help with the computer problem. Again, when I called, DJ would get on the other line and we would chat. I talked to his daughters Holly and Carol one time too.
I found out Dave died several weeks after the fact - as DJ couldn't call. Dave was her "eyes" - he read everything to her and made the calls. I have talked to DJ several times after Dave died, and I was so impressed with her spirit - of course she was sad, but she was so happy that he passed peacefully.
I never met these wonderful people in person, but feel like I got to know Dave thorough our on-line exchanges, frequent telephone calls, sharing of stories and some of the letters Dave sent me, diligently typed out when the computer wouldn't cooperate. I have saved one or two of the letters and the Christmas card they sent, with Dave and DJ with their two beautiful grown daughters. How wonderful that this man and his wife would be interested in chatting with someone they had never met and sharing part of their lives and their stories with me. I am not a SLP and had no real connection in the field. We just clicked and took a chance on letting friendship grow. I treasure the fact that I got to know this renowned, respected, expert pioneer in the stuttering field in a whole different way - as friends. Every time we talked on the phone and said good-bye, both of them always said, "with love to you". So I am saying that right back to you, Dave - "with love to you. Thank you for letting me in!"
Frederick P. Murray, Ph.D., Largo, Florida
The passing of Dave Williams last spring affected me greatly. I had known him for nearly 63 years, having met him at the University of Iowa, where I was enrolled in the speech clinic for the summer of 1947. A group of us, all young adult stutterers, was under the direction of Joseph Sheehan, assisted by his wife, Vivian. Wendell Johnson, Head of the Department, came in to give us an occasional lecture. Dave was a graduate student at the time and would drop in to visit us. I was immediately impressed by his friendly manner and extraordinary sense of humor. He took part in our social activities and became a real drawing card.
In ensuing years, I often ran into him at professional conferences, sometimes sharing a visit in a restaurant or bar, where he'd have a groups around him enjoying his verbal outputs. Oh! - - - how he could liven up dull, ego-centered-type gatherings! He was particularly skilled in portraying attempts throughout history to solve the enigma of stuttering. Many times I witnessed him diplomatically injecting some reality into the far-fetched claims of "established fluency" produced by near-neophytes engaging in laboratory setups that, for the moment, resulted in their stuttering subjects emitting their "coverted," magical goal of no stuttering at all.
During the many years he served on the faculty of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, he hosted groups of stutterers involved in self-help movements. Together with his wife, Dorothy Jane, they often hosted socials for these groups in their home. Many meaningful interactions took place in such a relaxed, friendly setting.
From my perspective, Dave was a marvelous example of one who built his mastery over stuttering on solid, time-tested principles. The rays of sunshine he brought to light up the dark cavern of stuttering will never be extinguished. His article "some thoughts on stuttering therapy," available on the Internet, will, happily, serve as a source for those wanting to enrich their knowledge and understanding.
(additional personal correspondence, August 20, 2014) Having Dave Williams as a valued friend for more than six decades, made me realize that clearing one's mind of negative clutterku and allowing humor to penetrate into shadowy crevices were important ingredients in the recipe leading to recovery from stuttering.
I have so many memories of Dave, both personal and educational! To begin with, when we first arrived in Dekalb in 1961, I decided to go back to school and get my Masters degree in Speech Pathology. I must admit I wasn't much younger than Dave. My husband Dan came to NorthernIllinois U. as chairman of the Dept. of Political Science and both our children were Dave's and D.J.'s daughters' ages. Therefore I was probably the oldest student in Dave's classes. In a way that was good because I laughed at all his jokes while the younger ones were merely bewildered. He was funny, brilliant, charming, and entertaining both in and out of the classroom. I couldn't believe how much he knew about music both popular and classical. I am now transitioning to our friendship. Of course I met DJ and we became fast friends, our both being interested in Speech. We saw very little of each other once we all moved on. The Williams to Fla. and us to CA. But Dave always kept in touch with his funnies on the email. After his death I came across one he sent a year ago and it was weird. I read it as if he was still there sending his jokes and making us laugh. I know he would have liked that. "Always leave them laughing" was his motto.
I have recently moved home and while browsing thru boxes in the attic I found two papers given to me by Dave "Immediate Versus Delayed Consequences of Stuttering Responses" and "A Survey of Speech and Hearing Disorders among Manila School Children." Dave had signed both to me with memories of a great convention.
I met Dave in the mid 1970's and on numerous occasions over the next ten years at ASHA, Self Help Stuttering Conventions and in his office at Northern Illinois University.
My fondest memories were of his wonderful sense of humour and his accordion playing. One example of his humour, during a visit to his office I noticed a framed object on his wall. It consisted of a Corn Cob pointed at one end and an electrical cable with a two pin plug attached. On asking him what it was he replied "My Patent Cure for Stuttering" plug it into the wall and you can imagine where the other end goes.
Many happy hours were spent together traveling with Dave sitting in the rear seat of the automobile playing his accordion and all on board singing with him.
I was saddened to learn of his passing as for me he epitomised the perfect American gentleman and eminent scholar. (July 8, 2011)
My first contact with J. David Williams occurred when I wrote to him in 1998 concerning an article he had written about Wendell Johnson and Charles Van Riper for the National Council on Stuttering newsletter. Dave gave me permission to add WENDELL JOHNSON AND CHARLES VAN RIPER: A Remembrance of Them and Their Era to the Stuttering Home Page.
Ten years later, on May 6, 2008, Dave discovered the ISAD online conference which renewed our correspondence and started an on-going friendship. His emails were consistently demonstrated a positive outlook and a fun-loving person. Excerpts from that letter included:
My wife (Dorothy Jane or "DJ") and I have lived here in Sarasota, FL in retirement since early 2003, and I've been pretty much out of the stuttering scene, as it were. I've just looked at your Stuttering Home Page, and read about the International Stuttering Awareness Day, October 22, 2007, and note that this was the 10th anniversary of that day. Egad, forsooth, and od's bodkins, where have I been?? That's the first I've ever heard of the ISAD. I'm wallowing in shame and guilt at my ignorance!
I'm no longer active in any stuttering self help/mutual aid organization, though I receive the German monthly publication "Der Kieselstein" (The Pebble), the organ of the German consolidated self-help groups (Bundesvereinigung Stotterer Selbsthilfe e.V). My German is pretty shaky, but I try to stagger through it as well as I can. . . . As for my own stuttering, I am constantly amazed at how much my total 'stuttering problem' has decreased. I still have very minor, fleeting instances of stuttering now and then, but there is absolutely no anxiety, no conscious expectation of difficulty, no avoidance simply because I don't feel there is anything I need to avoid.
I kept a diary from my last year in high school (1939) to my first year in grad school at the U. of Iowa (1947). It was quite detailed, and of course included comments on my experiences as a stutterer and my emotional reactions and self-analysis. Several years ago I dug out those diaries, re-read them, and copied out every single reference I had made about my stuttering. I was surprised at the result---I ended up with forty single-spaced typed pages. What I said in those pages remains a good measure of how I felt about my stuttering--the anxiety, abject fear, self-loathing, desperation, frustration, anger. (ed. note - excerpts from his diary from 1940-1947 is now online).
Apart from my stuttering, I was a pretty normal guy, I enjoyed life, had fun, liked girls (unless I had to call one on the phone), had hobbies, did pretty well in school (unless I had to speak in class)...and so on. But stuttering always loomed in the background, ready to strike. I seldom said anything that wasn't colored, shaped, somehow influenced by the anticipation or experience of stuttering. When I became a college/university professor, I still stuttered, but over the years I gained more self-confidence and control. In my teaching and clinical work, my stuttering never caused any perceivable problem, and I always enjoyed my work.
For the past several years, my stuttering has ceased being any problem at all. I use the telephone every day, arranging transportation (neither of us drives any more), calling about medical appointments, ordering catalog items. . . . . social calls, and so on. The phone used to be a great problem in my life, now it's nothing.
I'm highly aware of my lack of negative emotion and my fluency, and it's wonderful. I revel in it, When I think about how I used to be, I am chagrined and a bit sad. I feel sorry for that poor jerk who wasted so much time and energy being victimized by his stuttering and hating himself as he struggled against his personal demons. It makes me angry thinking about all that waste.
I have no feeling of 'giant in chains.' My stuttering did not keep me from being or doing many, many things except as I let it. I've been reasonably successful in life, and I've learned what my assets and limitations are. I think if I had never stuttered, I would have turned out to be pretty much what I am, except that I would have had an easier and perhaps happier time getting there.
Well, I didn't mean to ramble on this much, but perhaps I'm just having a bit of that old stutterer's complaint, verbal diarrhea.
Email dated 7/3/08
Hi Judy--- Boy, you've been busier than the proverbial one-armed paperhanger with the hives! . . . . Glad you can use the diary, and you are welcome to use initials instead of the full name wherever you wish. . . . . I certainly recall thinking that Van Riper was an arrogant old bastard when I met him for the first time around 1950 or so (though later I became fond of him). . . .
Email dated August 26, 2008
Hi Judy---
I wrote the paper "Some Thoughts on Stuttering Therapy" in 1991 to put in our NCOS Journal (a grandiose term for 'Newsletter'). NCOS meant National Council on Stuttering. Being editor meant that I practically wrote the newsletter. The article came out in the Spring 1991 issue.
To round out this information for you, I should quote a subsequent letter I got from Bill Perkins, dated April 15, 1991:
I've just read "Some Thoughts on Stuttering Therapy." I know it's brilliant because I agree with it wholeheartedly. So much so, in fact, that I'm requesting permission to quote as much of it as I have page-space for in my preface to a Seminars in Speech and Language issue. Enclosed are the excerpts I'd like to quote.
You understand that if you say "no," I'll be forced to say what I would have said anyway, which will appear to be a paraphrase of what you've said. I'd much rather give credit where credit's due.
Cordially,
Bill
In preparing his paper for the 2008 online conference, he wrote
August 30 - "Much grass! (that's Spanish, keed). You are ever-present, omnipotent, indispensable, all-knowing, incalculable, indefatigable, and downright helpful! Have a good Labor Day weekend yourself, but don't labor too much!" and August 27 -- "I like the way you are presenting my contribution. It prompted me to re-read the thing carefully (for the first time in many years), and I must say that I thought it was damn good. I wish I could have written and published it 50 or 60 years ago in, say, JSHD. At the same time I realize that I may be getting just a tad senile and overly impressed with myself. I do hope I get at least one really solid and critical evaluation of it from ISAD readers who are professional stuttering therapists, We shall see."
He became a very active participant, as part of The Prof is In, contributing a paper, and reading and responding to every paper written by others for each conference he participated in. On October 5, 2008 he wrote:
Good heavens! Surely no ancient crock of 87 is participating in your conference! Anyone that old has got to be so far over the hill that he probably wouldn't even remember how to stutter. I'm glad that I am still only slightly beyond the bloom of youth, and I just want to say that I'm having no end of fun reading the papers and making comments and asking questions. Also, it's nice to reestablish contact with various people. All in all, a rewarding experience!
Dave copied me on a note he wrote to Oliver Bloodstein about the ISAD online conference paper he had written Some Thoughts on Stuttering Therapy and Bloodstein's response on October 12, 2008
Hi Oliver--- Here's Judy Kuster's update of the ongoing ISAD Conference in which I am participating. ISAD means International Stuttering Awareness Day and it ends on Oct. 22, ISAD on which I must be highly aware of any stuttering I do. For the past two weeks I have been reading papers galore, and making comments and asking questions, also answering questions and comments about my paper, "Some Thoughts on Stuttering Therapy." It's been work but also fun. You can get the conference via Google---type The Stuttering Home Page by Judith M. Kuster, then click on the top line, the conference motto which is "Don't be Afraid of Stuttering." This allows you to scroll down and see all the conference papers, etc. You've probably seen the current Der Kieselstein, which has an article on ISAD (page 12). Best --- Dave
Let me know if you have any questions.
-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: Oliver Bloodstein
Subject: Re: ISAD conference update
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 Everything you said in your article deserves to be said and said again. One of you comments that particularly struck me was that stuttering therapy often has a delayed effect. I found that time and again in the years that I was working with students who stuttered. A student who I thought had accomplished nothing would call me up years later to thank me for all the help I had given him.
Oliver
Dave did not like computers. He much preferred his Royal typewriter.
Email dated 7/12/08
Judy--- I wish I COULD write lengthy stuff a la email, but I had so many frustrating experiences (having stuff that I had spent a long time composing suddenly disappear when I would accidentally hit a wrong key) that I'm scared to even try it., and I feel secure only when I use my typewriter and know that when I type a word it's going to stay in existence, I know there's a simple answer to this problem, but it's a simple thing that somehow I haven't learned, and so I persist in my neurotic fear of disappearing text (textitis, textophemia, textosis???). You have no idea of the shame. guilt, self-loathing, intropunitiveness, and feelings of social degradation this malady engenders! It's as bad as stuttering! And incidentally, I've sold a couple of brief autobiographical stories to a magazine called The Good Old Days, and luckily for me the editor accepts stuff done on a typewriter rather than via computer, but I know many publications these days prefer (or insist) on computer stuff.
Several times during the conference I would receive good-natured requests such as
I have made another boo-boo (Swahili for "snafu" or "screw-up"). When I made a reply to the question of when to discharge a client from therapy (near the beginning of the "The Prof is In" discussion) I thought a minute later that I had not posted my reply, so I repeated my answer and posted it--again. It looks as though I was so enamored of my own words that I wanted to see them twice! Apparently there is no way that I could have deleted my second answer (which is not as good as my first, I feel) so all I can do is to alert you of the situation.
Dave agreed to share interesting historical information with me
September 6, 2009
Indeed I'm interested! I'm delighted to make some contributions to the SHP, and I hope to make more. I'm in contact with Nick Johnson (Wendell's son), and sending him various bits of memorabilia concerning his dad.
I attended the 1966 International Seminar in Stuttering and Behavior Therapy in Monterey, CA, and in my pack-ratty way I've kept a lot of stuff on it, including a list of all participants (I think there were 47), abstracts of all papers, a group photo of participants, a copy of the 4-day program, and miscellaneous items. Also, I taped the entire proceeding on small audio cassettes, with permission of the conference staff and the federal Vocational Rehabilitation Administration which was footing the bill for the whole clambake (those were the happy days when there was money for this sort of thing). I had to promise not to copy or sell the tapes. I still have them, mixed in with a gazillion other tapes of stuff on stuttering, mostly speakers at our Nat. Council on Stuttering that I shepherded here at NIU and our home from 1982 through 1989.
Anyway, I've toyed with the idea of writing an article on that meeting, listing the participants and summarizing the proceedings, etc. It was held at the Highlands Inn in Monterey, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so the surroundings were not exactly drab.
I've also toyed (I do considerable toying) with the notion of doing an article summarizing our eight years of hosting the NCOS. I got some good speakers, like Joe Sheehan, Oliver Bloodstein, Peter Ramig, Ted Peters, etc. The typical procedure would be to have a wine and cheese party at our home on Friday evening, then a full day of presentations and discussion at NIU (which was only three blocks from our house) followed by a banquet at a downtown restaurant, then on Sunday morning there was perhaps a meeting or two , or a discussion group, and the whole thing would end around noon on Sunday. We had a lot of fun and enjoyment, and happy memories.
DJ and I will never forget our first convention in the fall of 1982. We had the 'banquet' at our home, and DJ made chicken cacciatore for forty people. We had several chickens cut up in a huge pot, and had difficulty lifting it off the stove. It was served buffet style, and people could choose spaghetti or rice. We had glorious fun, but after that first time, we had the banquet in a restaurant!!
Well, enough for now. When I actually get something written, I'll send it to you, and you may consider it for the Stuttering Home Page.
We're keeping a bleary and bloodshot eye on Hurricane Ike. If he blows us away, I'll try to wave to you as we sail past.
We enjoyed a lively email correspondence which revealed his sense of humor. One email come with the subject "kiddeley." He explained
The "kiddeley" in my subject line refers to a stupid joke I heard from Dorothy Sherman, an Iowa speech path prof. years ago & co-director with W. Johnson of my dissertation. Here it is:
Kid goes into a butcher shop and tells the butcher: "Mom wants a pound of kiddeleys." Butcher says "You mean kidneys, don't you?" Kid says, "I said kiddeleys, diddel I?"
Dorothy was somewhat better at discussing analysis of variance than telling jokes, but the jokes were funnier.
In another email he shared some of his personal history:
I've just read your account of your two weeks in Bulgaria under the Fulbright program (ed. a paper written for the 2009 online conference - jak). I find it fascinating because it evokes memories of my Fulbright year in the Philippines in 1968-69 with DJ and our two young daughters. The kids attended the International School, and I lectured at the U. of the Philippines and worked with a few Filipino stutterers. DJ did speech therapy at the Ateneo de Manila, a Jesuit college. We gave lectures at many different colleges throughout the Philippines, so we got to know the country pretty well.
We didn't have to contend with the language problem that you faced. I know the Cyrillic alphabet and I have a smattering of Russian, but it would be a serious problem without translators. In the Philippines, English is a second language, or rather a lingua franca, because without English a great many Filipinos would have trouble communicating among themselves since they have eight major`languages and 87 dialects. The late Pres. Marcos came from Ilocos Province and spoke Ilocano (plus English) and his wife Imelda (she of the 3000 pairs of shoes) came from Leyte Province and spoke Waray-Waray (plus English) so they couldn't talk to each other unless they spoke English. Command of English varies varies greatly, depending on level of education and other factors, which leads to some frustrating and/or hilarious incidents when Americans talk with Filipinos. Many Filipinois have Spanish-sounding names, but almost no Filipinos know any Spanish. They just use the corrupted Spanish words that have been integrated into Philippine languages. in Tagalog (Manila area), "How are you?" ("Kumusta kayo") is modified Spanish "Como esta usted?". The helter-skelter mixture of English and Tagalog is often called Engalog or Taglish.
I got interested in Philippine culture, language and history, and published a few articles on these subjects. All in all, it was a great experience, and I'm still interested in Philippine events.
In January 2009 Tom and I visited Dave and DJ Williams in Sarasota. They treated us for lunch in their very nice dining room and then we had a great visit. Dave, who was recuperating from surgery, showed us some of his airplane models, his famous Royal typewriter, a plaque and told us the story of "Martinis and peanut butter crackers." Also lots of interesting stories of his career and people in the field in his generation. I wished I had had a tape recorder!
Dave's last correspondence with me was on Christmas Day, 2009. His note included the following:
"A Book of Readings" sets me awash in nostalgia. I bought a copy just after it was published in 1953, and it's fun to browse through it again. Joe Sheehan, George Wischner, Spencer Brown, Oliver Bloodstein, Hildred Schuell and I were together at Iowa at varying times from 1946 to 1948, and we of course were all shepherded by Wendell "Jack" Johnson. Sheehan and Wischner were the chief clinical supervisors, stutterers being divided between them. I was in Sheehan's group. Bloodstein was finishing up his Ph.D. while I was still doing my M.A. but we shared an office in '48. Spencer Brown (Ph.D. and M.D.) took over for Johnson when Jack was a visiting lecturer at UCLA (and I think USC) in the summer of 1948, and helped me complete my M.A. thesis. I also had a nodding acquaintance with Van Riper and Robert West from various meetings. and I had met Bryng Bryngelson and Mack Steer. Hildred Schuell did a dissertation on sex differences in stutterers, but later her main interest shifted to aphasia.
Dave knew them all. He was also himself an important part of the history of our field.
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