Celebrating 55 Years

Sacramento State University has been an education and training facility since 1952 for students preparing for careers in speech-language pathology and audiology.

The department would like to express our thanks to our alums for making us a very successful program. The success rates of our students as they enter the fields of Speech Pathology and Audiology has been impressive.

This fall we are celebrating the 55th anniversary of Speech Pathology & Audiology at California State University, Sacramento (Sac State). As a part of this celebration we held an event for alums, students, faculy, and the community on October 6th.

This event brought toogether a diverse group of alums, students, faculty, and community members.

• In 1952 Thayne Hedges joined the faculty and introduced courses such as speech pathology, audiometric testing and hearing conservation.

• When he left in 1954 to pursue a doctorate, Maryjane Rees, a fully qualified speech pathologist and audiologist with full-time field experience replaced him.

• Maryjane Rees was the first instructor with a doctorate in speech pathology at CSUS. She received her degree from the University of Iowa.

• She became the pioneer of the program and with the help of Oliver Skalbeck, laid the foundation for the program as it is known today and headed it for its first 29 years.

• The first courses were offered in the Speech Arts Department as a division of Humanities and Fine Arts in 1955.

• Some of those courses included: Introduction to Speech Correction, Organic speech Disorders, Lip Reading and Stuttering

• First Credential offered in Speech Correction and Lip Reading in Remedial Classes was offered in 1957

• The first therapy rooms were in the old home economics building now called Kadema Hall

• The first clinic was in what is now the “green room” or make up rooms in theater arts (Shasta Hall).

• The present clinic opened in the fall of 1970 with the official open house on December 10, 1970.

• The third doctorate hired in the department was Robert E. Tice in 1968. Dr. Tice received his master’s degree at CSUS and studied under Maryjane Rees. He died in the spring of 2003 and was honored posthumously for Alumni Honors.

• Another honored alumna was Robert Hubbell who also received his master’s degree under Maryjane Rees and came back to CSUS to teach and was a former department chair.

• The Department expanded rapidly beginning in 1970 and reached a peak of 11 faculty members in 1999.

• Since 1971, the department of Speech Pathology and Audiology has graduated over 1700 students.

•These Alums have returned to teach at Sacramento State, served as leaders in the State organization, and made valuable contributions to the community through their work in schools, hospitals and private practices.

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Eleanor Nelson

John Saylor

Carmen Newlin

Bruce Becker

Don Kehoe

Donald Larson

Mary Lydon

Del Wengenroth

G. Nelson Jones

James Chuchas

Jean Piette

Patricia Nielsen

Dorothy Torres

Anna Phelan

Marsha Wilson

Catherine Conrado

Jean Shipley

Jean Costello

Pat Spears Lee

Deborah Ross-Swain

Gerry Pascoe

Robert Hubbell

Robert Tice

Liz Dokimos

Dale Spears