Ruth and Richard Schiefelbusch
7/10/07
If enemy air fire and a parachute jump into the Baltic Sea didn’t kill Richard Schiefelbusch, the cold water would.
His legs grew numb. Within minutes, he knew, the frigid water would sap the life out of his arms as well. At the age of 23, happily married and soon to be a father, Schiefelbusch resigned himself to die.
But in an unexpected turn of events, a fishing boat rescued Schiefelbusch. For the next two years of World War II – from 1943 to 1945 – the Army Air Corps serviceman from Kansas would be a German prisoner of war.
Schiefelbusch and his wife, Ruth, recently gave $50,000 to KU Endowment to establish a charitable gift annuity for KU. Half will go to KU’s speech and hearing clinic, the rest to support pilot research with the goal of obtaining more federal grants.
Schiefelbusch, who will turn 89 this month, acknowledges his imprisonment was a difficult time – separated from his wife and newborn son, his destiny uncertain. And yet, in a positive way as well, it was a defining time of his life. Camp prisoners formed a society in which they challenged each other to stay mentally and physically healthy. They established a set of universal goals for living. And when released, Schiefelbusch, who had earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies at Kansas State Teachers College of Pittsburg, carried with him a new goal for his own life – to help others.
He returned to school. In 1947, Schiefelbusch graduated from the University of Kansas with a master’s degree in speech pathology and psychology. In 1951 he completed his Ph.D. in speech pathology and audiology at Northwestern University. He is a distinguished professor emeritus of speech, language and hearing at KU where he has been a faculty member since 1949.
Today, after 58 years on the faculty of KU’s speech pathology department and having been instrumental in establishing humanitarian projects, including the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies— a human development and disabilities research center – he is still helping others.
Schiefelbusch works in his campus office on a daily basis. In 2006, he co-authored with Stephen Schroeder the book, “Doing Science and Doing Good,” which tells the history of KU’s Bureau of Child Research and the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies.
After a career spent helping people who have developmental needs, Schiefelbusch is helping financially as well – with his gift for KU. He hopes more people will follow his example.
“I want to be contagious,” Schiefelbusch said with a smile.
KU Endowment is a nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.
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