Founder of NIU's Communicative Disorders dies

by Mark McGowan

Cletus Fisher came to NIU in 1968 on a mission: to create a Department of Communicative Disorders that could stand alone from the Department of Speech.

The results of that work are greater than anyone could have imagined: NIU's Department of Communicative Disorders, one of the largest such programs in the state, is ranked near the top of similar programs in the county.

Fisher, who retired in 1987, died March 4. He was 79.

"He really built the department and unified it," said Earl "Gip" Seaver, chair of the department and a Fisher hire in 1975. "All three of our programs are nationally ranked due to his hiring of faculty and expecting them to be productive."

According to the 1999 U.S. News and World Report rankings, the audiology program is No. 5 nationally for master's only programs while the speech pathology program is No. 13 nationally for master's degree only programs. All three programs, including rehabilitation counseling, are ranked No. 1 in the State of Illinois for master's only.

The department's pass rate on the national examination is greater than 95 percent (the national pass rate is about 80 percent). The department, which has provided clinical services to the public since the 1930s, also offers the only rehabilitation counseling program in the state with a focus on deafness.

Fisher laid the foundation for this success through careful hiring of faculty dedicated to students and scholarship, Seaver said. He also created social activities to bring faculty and students together, helping to maintain a low faculty turnover.

"He really developed a family atmosphere, and it still exists today," Seaver said.

Born in Canton, Ohio, Fisher earned degrees from Kent State University, the University of Iowa and The Ohio State University. He worked as an assistant professor and administrative assistant in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the University of Iowa before coming to NIU.

He served as director of the Speech Pathology and Audiology Division, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, working to unite the "fractured" program into a single unit with a single purpose in the then-College of Professional Studies.

Known to his colleagues as "Clete," Fisher pushed his young faculty in their teaching, their scholarship, their pursuit of external grants and their university service. The chair himself served on "every committee you could think of," Seaver said, and coordinated the self-study associated with the 1982 North Central Association of Colleges and Schools re-accreditation process.

In 1975, under Fisher's leadership, NIU became the first institution in the Midwest and only the fourth in the nation to offer a master's degree for counselors of the hearing impaired.

Meanwhile, he also was a talented teacher devoted to his students. The research paper he required students write to complete his class remains part of the curriculum and now is called the "Fisher Paper." Graduate students can apply for scholarships in Fisher's name.