It’s difficult to find a photo of Betty Welsbacher ’61 without a smile lighting up her face. It’s that sunny disposition and zest for life that those who knew her remember so fondly.
Welsbacher, WSU school of music professor emerita, and her husband, Richard, both natives of Ohio, arrived in 1958 at the University of Wichita, where he obtained a teaching position and they found the special education needed for one of their sons at the former Institute for Logopedics.
Betty, who earned a master’s degree in music at WU, taught music in Wichita’s public schools and at the Institute before teaching at Wichita State.
It was at WSU in the early 1970s that she developed a special music education program, the first of its type in the nation. The program taught educators how to use music to reach those with disabilities. She taught at WSU from 1970 to 1993, when she received the first College of Fine Arts Excellence in Teaching Award. In 1996, she was inducted into the Mid-America Education Hall of Fame.
Her lifelong work touched many. As her husband wrote in a tribute: “Hundreds of students came and played in her classes and left with her implanted in their hearts.”
Betty Welsbacher died July 31 in Wichita.
