IN 1934, MARTIN F. PALMER, a passionate and visionary scientist, established Wichita University's Department of Speech Sciences in order to study and treat speech disorders in children.
The department, founded with a staff of two, was first housed in a single room on the top floor of the administration building, then in an off-campus facility dubbed the Flo Brown Memorial Laboratory.
By 1940, the center was renamed the Institute of Logopedics, for logos (work) and pedia (children); by 1945 it was an autonomous entity with its own board of trustees.
The 1940 Parnassus reports that the institute was "recognized by the government as the foremost speech laboratory in the Middle West" and that "the present staff of twenty-five works with over 300 children," using "every known form of speech equipment — from sound recording to photography," all the while "endeavoring to coax science to return stolen birthrights to speechless children."
The institute was so highly regarded that it attracted attention from parents of special-needs children across the United States and even abroad. In 1949, the operation moved to a 40-acre complex of 44 buildings on 21st Street several blocks west of the WU campus.
By 1993, speech defects were only one category of treatment and therapy being provided at the facility, and the name was changed to Heartspring. Five years later the entire operation moved to a brand-new $14.25 million campus northeast of the university, where today 280 people are employed and 37 students live on-site.
