Wendell Johnson

Wendell Johnson (April 16, 1906 – August 29, 1965) was an American psychologist, author and was a proponent of general semantics (or GS). His life work contributed greatly to speech–language pathology, particularly in understanding the area of stuttering, as Johnson himself stuttered. The Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center at University of Iowa is named after him. Aside from his contributions to stuttering, he posthumerously became known for his controversial experiment nicknamed "The Monster Study." Early life Wendell Andrew Leroy Johnson was born April 16, 1906 in Roxbury, Kansas as the youngest child to Swedish immigrants Andrew and Mary Johnson. His family lived on a farm. Johnson began to stutter when he was around the age of five or six. He requested to be sent to schools to fix his stutter and was willing to try anything to cure it, but it proved to be lifelong. Still, Johnson was president of his high school class, captain of the football, baseball, and basketball teams, and valedictorian. He spent 2 years at a local college before moving to Iowa City, Iowa, to attend the University of Iowa. He chose this school due to their renowned Speech Clinic in hopes to have his stutter cured.