Since the first speech pathologists started rolling out of the University of Montana in the late 1950s, thousands of Montana schoolchildren and adults have learned to speak with clear enunciation and coherency, thanks to “Chuck” Parker, who died last Wednesday in Missoula at the age of 84.
Parker was the founder of and former head of the speech pathology and audiology program at the University of Montana.
“He was extremely supportive of his students,” said Boehmler, who also taught in the program at UM for nearly 30 years. “Our whole program reflected that. Part of our master’s degree program involved a year’s internship someplace. We developed relationships with programs and hospitals and schools all over the country, so that our students could go to top-notch places for that internship.”
Parker earned his master’s degree in Iowa, and that’s where he met Boehmler. Together, they both earned their doctorates in the field. And both began to teach in research positions at the University of Iowa.
Back then, the field was fairly new, so both men laid some new groundwork for future speech pathologists and audiologists.
Though he had his master’s in speech pathology, Parker’s emphasis and expertise was in audiology. Throughout his career, he saw the technology in ear implants and hearing aids advance tremendously.
“They used to do a lot of teaching of lip-reading,” said Boehmler. “That’s faded as the technology of hearing aids has improved.”
During World War II, many of the speech pathology and audiology departments were phased out. But after the war, they came back and Parker was one of the pioneers.
“He was one of the leaders who is quite responsible for the excellent state of training that went on at the University of Montana,” said Al Yonovitz, chairman of the UM Department of Communicative Science and Disorders.
Yonovitz has recently taken over the program, which was revived this year after a nearly 20-year absence. When Parker and Boehmler retired in 1985, the degree program was soon axed by the state Legislature.
Last February, the University of Montana held a reunion for the program, in which Parker was honored. Last month, Boehmler gave a stirring speech about Parker when the new program was officially dedicated.
It was a fitting dedication, said Boehmler, to a man who truly was a giant in his field - who literally help set the standards of speech pathology.
“Chuck was very active in evaluating and investigating programs across the nation,” he said. “He knew programs all over the country. It was also very useful in setting our own standards.”
Born in 1924, Parker was a fourth-generation Montana. He was an avid outdoorsman his whole life.
A firefighter and smokejumper, Parker worked at the lookout on Blue Mountain and other places around the Missoula area. While in college at UM (then Montana State), he continued to work as a smokejumper and was almost enlisted to fight the deadly Mann Gulch Fire.
He married his wife, Jean, in 1949. Together, the two were at home in the wilderness. In his years, Parker built boats, hiked, backpacked, canoed and kayaked any chance he got.
He is survived by his wife; his brother Raymond Parker of Missoula; children and spouses, Doug Parker and Toneybeth Clark of Missoula, Grant Parker and Molly Galusha of Missoula, Meg Parker and Mark Johnstad of Bozeman; grandchildren Matt, Jackson and Cooper. Other relatives include brother Raymond’s family, Marilyn Parker, Linda Parker and Fred, Sari and Craig Lerch, Diana Parker and Ron Powell.
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