ASHA. Experimental Phonetics – T32

Appendix D
The Honors of the Association to Grant Fairbanks *1

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The American Speech and Hearing Association
presents The Honors of the Association
to Grant Fairbanks

In recognition of his many years of distinguished, scholarly editorship of the
publications of the ASHA and his leadership and contributions in the area of
research; and in sincere appreciation of his service to the Council of the
Association in helping to define and to clarify the form and direction of our
professional organization and policies; the Honors of the Association are
awarded to Dr. Grant Fairbanks.

The American Speech and Hearing Association, in
convention at Los Angeles, California, November 17, 1955245

In selecting Grant Fairbanks for
this honor, the American Speech and
Hearing Association recognizes his
outstanding achievement in the experimental
study of speech and hearing,
his stimulating and profound ability
as a teacher, his important contributions
in both the theoretical and the
practical areas of speech science, and
his devoted service to the professional
growth of this Association. In
his early years as a student at the State
University of Iowa, he was strongly
influenced by the late Carl E. Seashore,
a pioneer in psycho-physical investigation.
Professor Fairbanks has greatly
enriched and expanded this fine
academic heritage.

First published in 1937, Dr. Fairbanks'
Voice and Articulation Drillbook
is widely used wherever instruction
and clinical training in the speech
skills are to be found. His numerous
research contributions show a marked
breadth of interest and an outstanding
insight into human communication.

Professor Fairbanks, as director of
the Speech Research Laboratory at
the University of Illinois, is responsible
for a program which is highly
imaginative and substantial, and which
holds a place of primary significance
in current research on speech and
hearing. Among those who study the
science of electrical communication,
Professor Fairbanks is best known for
his development, in collaboration with
W. L. Everitt and R. P. Jaeger, of a
practical method for speech time-and-frequency
compression and expansion.

The American Speech and Hearing
Association holds a special respect and
appreciation for Grant Fairbanks because
of his unusual achievement as
Editor of the Journal of Speech and
Hearing Disorders. It is particularly
appropriate that the Honors of the
Association should be awarded to him
in the midst of an important and productive
career, for many outstanding
research contributions may yet be expected
from his hand. As evidence of
this fact, and as promise of the future,
we have the recent excellent report
on auditory feedback in the December
1955 issue of the Journal. His
article on the Theory of the Speech
Mechanism as a Servo-System suggests
a more philosophical development
of fundamental theory which
will mark the path for those who
follow in experimental research.

Biographical summary

Fairbanks, Grant, experimental phonetician;
b. Austin, Minn., July 26, 1910; m.
Helen Cornelius, 1936; ch. Grant Jr., Janet,
Lee.

B.A., Univ. Redlands, 1931; M.A., State
Univ. Iowa, 1934; Ph.D., State Univ. Iowa,
1936.

Res. Asst.-Assoc. Prof., State Univ. Iowa,
1934-46 (on leave 1943, 1944-46); Assoc.
Prof.-Prof., Univ. So. Calif., 1946-48; Prof.,
Univ. Illinois, since 1948.

NRC, 1943; NDRC research, Psych. Corp.,
1943; Captain, AUS, 1944-46; Acoustic
Physicist., Chief, Aural Rehab. Sec., Borden
Gen. Hosp., 1944-46; Consultant, Army,
1946-52; Consultant, Vet. Admin., 1947-48;
Consultant; Control Systems Lab., 1951-54;
Prin. Invest., USAF research cont., 1954-56;
NRC mem., Comm. on Hearing and
Bio-Acoustics, since 1953, Chairman, Working
Group, 1954-55.

Member, Amer. Speech and Hearing
Assoc. (Fellow, 1941; Vice-Pres., 1947;
Councilor, 1948; Editor, 1949-54); Acoustical
Soc. Amer. (Fellow, 1941); Amer. Inst.
Physics A.A.A.S. (Fellow, 1953); Amer.
Psych. Assoc.; Diplomate, Clinical Psychology,
A.B.E.P.P., 1948; Speech Assoc.
Amer.; A.A.U.P.; Sigma Xi.

Author, research reports and articles;
Voice and Articulation Drillbook, 1937, 1938,
1939, 1940; Examination and Diagnosis of
Voice and Articulation Disorders, 1941;
Practical Voice Practice, 1944; Editor,
Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders,
1949-54.246