From Humble Beginnings—The Early Years

We both met Fred Bess in 1970 when he was in the process of completing his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Michigan and had recently been hired by Central Michigan University (CMU) to start a master's-level audiology training program. It was indeed our privilege to be in Fred's first, select group of graduate students at CMU, beginning in June 1970. By all accounts, and by our inherited nickname, “The Sweat Hogs,” we were not among the academic elite; however, for whatever reason, this young, highly motivated, and consummately confident new director of audiology believed that he could spin gold from straw. Given that of the six initial students, three went on to earn Ph.D.s, one became a highly successful private practitioner, and one had a long and successful career in a government audiology position, he obviously saw something that few others could. Then again, those familiar with Fred understand that among his many attributes has been his uncanny ability to seize the moment.

Fred was not your ordinary professor, nor did he have ordinary graduate students. What was readily apparent from the start, was that Fred was a born leader and visionary. Most of us came into graduate school with a limited audiology background. Some of us had already worked as public school speech therapists and were looking to change careers; two came from experimental psychology backgrounds. Immediately after matriculating, his six new and somewhat anxious audiology graduate students were cast into the hearing clinic, which, at the time, was situated on the top floor of Old Warriner Hall, built in 1928, but had undergone several renovations over the intervening 40 years to accommodate various university programs and functions. To gain entry into the test suite, we traversed a long, narrow hallway, passed a bathroom, and entered the test room of the suite. It was impossible to access the control room housing the audiometer without passing through the test room itself. This arrangement was quite awkward because any time Fred needed to check in on a student clinician, he had to disturb the test session and excuse himself to the patient as he passed through to the control booth—not an ideal arrangement. Moreover, even though the suite was supposedly sound treated with acoustical tiles, flushing noises from an adjacent bathroom could easily be heard in the suite. Comically, patients sometimes raised their hand or pressed a response button whenever they heard the toilet flush!

Not only were we relatively inexperienced in audiometric testing, but none of us had ever seen such a sophisticated two-channel audiometer. Quickly realizing our limitations, Fred decided that the best solution was total immersion. Using the student cafeteria as an early morning classroom, we would meet at 6 AM over several cups of coffee to discuss such introductory topics as the underlying principles of the Carhart-Jerger[1] modification of the 1944 Hughson-Westlake[2] method for establishing pure-tone audiometric threshold, word recognition testing, and the like. Lest you think that this shotgun approach represented our total classroom experience, we would reconvene each afternoon and evening until 10 PM for actual didactic lectures. Fred, of course, taught all of the audiology classes.

We also were responsible for providing aural rehabilitation services to children with hearing loss who were attending a summer camp sponsored by CMU. These children ranged in age from preschoolers to teenagers and were divided into small groups based on age with each group receiving 4 hours of therapy each day (i.e., typically four 1-hour sessions). Fred directed all of the aural rehabilitation activities that took place in the summer camp, plus supervised audiological assessments that were scheduled for each day, all while working on his Ph.D. dissertation. Furthermore, Fred was in the initial stages of starting a private audiology practice in Saginaw, Michigan, located ~60 miles from CMU.

Fred was indeed the consummate teacher and mentor. He demanded and received our undivided attention and total commitment to his system and style of teaching, which centered on critical reviews of the research literature. Other than select readings in classic textbooks such as Modern Developments in Audiology [3] edited by James Jerger, Experiments in Hearing [4] by George von Békésy, and The Measurement of Hearing [5] by Ira Y. Hirsch (the fact that we even remember these books almost 4 decades later is a tribute to Fred's teaching skills), our entire focus was on the research literature. How well we remember Fred's mantra: “If you can't cut the mustard, then get the heck out of the kitchen.”

Although Fred was a demanding taskmaster, he also was compassionate, sensitive, and fun loving. Each night after class, we would relieve the mounting pressures of long and intensive days over a few pitchers of beer at EJ's Bar, often challenging the Mt. Pleasant locals to a game of pool. How we survived that year and a half amazes us to this day. After all, we still had to go home, prepare for the next day's class work and quiz, arise to go to early morning clinical class at 6 AM, and then begin the day anew. All this togetherness resulted in a strong camaraderie among his students. Unique to this camaraderie was a passion to understand the professional literature as it related to clinical practice. Although we did not use the term evidence-based practice at that time, it was clear that Fred's high standards served to motivate each of his students to seek clinical solutions based on published research findings. And, long before Gus Mueller, Fred would find unique enjoyment taking his “sweat hogs” to state audiology meetings and challenging anyone to stump us on audiology trivia.

Among our fondest memories was time spent at the office of Nicholas P. Redifield, M.D. (may his memory be blessed), an otolaryngologist in Saginaw, Michigan. Dr. Redfield allowed each student to spend 1 half day per week in his office actually seeing patients. He taught us the art of otoscopy long before it was in audiology vogue. He allowed us to examine patients along with him so that we could develop a better appreciation of disease entity and clinical signs and symptoms. This experience was then augmented by didactic lectures and extensive, detailed student reports on myriad disorders of hearing. Dr. Nick was an amazing teacher and complemented Fred well.

Drs. Bess and Redfield also were somewhat of historical pioneers, having formed a private audiology clinic, The Saginaw Valley Hearing Clinic, in 1970. Several of us had the opportunity to gain considerable experience working at the clinic on weekends. This was yet another example of Fred's vision.

Another highlight of our graduate program was a research trip to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to study the effects of snowmobile engine noise on hearing. With a mobile audiometric unit borrowed from the Michigan Better Hearing Institute, we set out to take sound-level measurements at the infamous International 500 Snowmobile Race, as well as to test the hearing of its drivers and spectators. The results earned Fred one of his first highly recognized publications,[6] superseding, of course, his seminal study of model airplane engine noise.[7]

As students, we were so involved in our own survival that we did not give much thought to the incredible amount of time Fred was devoting to his teaching, directing, supervising, writing, organizing, and personal scholarship responsibilities. Despite all of that, Fred defended his doctoral dissertation successfully on July 27, 1970, at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan. There was no metamorphosis other than our now addressing him as Dr. Bess. He remained dedicated to teaching his “sweat hogs” and establishing a solid master's degree program in audiology.

Recall that Fred started CMU's audiology program in 1970 with the rather humble facilities that were housed in Warriner Hall. By early 1971, however, Fred had moved the audiology program into a new facility that consisted of three double-walled audiologic sound suites, four single-walled test rooms, two large rooms dedicated purely to aural rehabilitative functions, and a vast array of auditory assessment and top-of-the-line instrumentation. Furthermore, 3 years after moving into this new facility, under Fred's leadership and direction, the CMU audiology program had expanded to include four full-time faculty positions. Clearly, the record of professional success realized by the individuals who graduated from the audiology program during Fred's tenure is truly remarkable. For example, many of these initial graduates went on to obtain doctoral degrees and experienced successful research and teaching careers, others entered various forms of clinical practice, and many attained leadership status in scholarly and professional societies. Still others were among the first to enter the sector of private practice.

Finally, as one might expect, Fred was active in his pursuit of grant funding either as a primary investigator or as a co-sponsor. In fact, we suspect that one of Fred's first successful grant endeavors occurred in 1970 with an award from the CMU Research and Creative Endeavors Committee in the amount of $1750 to compare the performance of custom-made and stock earmolds in hearing aid evaluations, as well as $1100 for a study on word intelligibility by picture identification in preschool children. Fred subsequently received numerous other grants while he was at CMU (for sums far greater than these).

We both wanted to work with Fred at CMU after graduation. One of us (DFK) joined the CMU faculty as the director of audiological services in 1971, immediately upon completing his master's degree. The other (DMS), upon Fred's encouragement, went into the Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt University (the second Ph.D. class) and returned to CMU after completion, while DFK went on to enroll in the Ph.D. program at Michigan State University. Regrettably, Fred was lured to Vanderbilt shortly after DMS joined him on the faculty at CMU.

In our short time working with Fred, it was clear he possessed three qualities not typically seen in most people. First, he had a unique ability to analyze situations in a systematic way that usually resulted in realistic solutions or initiatives that, when implemented, typically had favorable outcomes. Second, when confronted with a problem, rather than making a mountain out of a molehill, Fred was able to employ the opposite strategy of reducing the problem into simple manageable segments that were easily solved. Third, and in our way of thinking, Fred's single most valuable attribute was his seemingly clairvoyant ability to recognize opportunity.

Ample evidence indicates that the vast amount of time and effort Fred expended resulted in what many considered the model master's-level audiology program of its time. Clearly, Fred recognized the potential that existed at CMU when he was initially recruited as the director of audiology in the late 1960s. Of course, it was Fred's other attributes, primarily his work ethic, leadership, and dedication to purpose, that helped CMU's audiology program realize such a lofty degree of success. Ultimately, Fred had the vision to resign his position at CMU and join the faculty at Vanderbilt University, where his continued success at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center is a matter of record. In the 38 years we have known him, we never once heard “I can't accomplish that.” He always seemed to find a viable solution regardless of the magnitude of the problem and managed to turn adversity into advantage.

Although most laud Fred for his unsurpassed grant writing skills, unending list of scholarly publications, book chapters, and myriad textbooks, it is his vision, leadership, indefatigable energy, unshakable loyalty, impeccable integrity, unmatched kindness, and palpable passion for his profession that characterize Fred H. Bess, the audiologist, as we know him. Above all, it is his beaming smile, contagious laughter, and love of family that best characterize Fred, our dear friend and mentor. Despite our divergent paths, we have always regarded Fred as our mentor, lifelong friend, and adviser. The bond formed during the formative years of the graduate audiology program at CMU has lasted throughout our respective careers and has included our entire families. As much as we feel connected to Fred, so too his lovely wife and lifelong partner Susie.

Finally, as his initial graduate students, we can lay claim to being the first to join with Fred in singing with gusto, “Our ole man's an audiologist, what do you think about that?” Little did we know at that time the profound legacy contained in such a simple song.

REFERENCES

• 1 Carhart R, Jerger J. Preferred method for clinical determination of pure-tone thresholds.  J Speech Hear Disord. 1959;  24 330-345
• 2 Hughson W, Westlake H. Manual for program outline for rehabilitation of aural casualties both military and civilian.  Trans Amer Acad Ophthal Otolaryng Suppl. 1944;  48 1-15
• 3 Jerger J. Modern Developments in Audiology. New York, NY; Academic Press 1964
• 4 Von Békésy G. Experiments in Hearing. New York, NY; McGraw-Hill 1960
• 5 Hirsh I Y. The Measurement of Hearing. New York, NY; McGraw-Hill 1952
• 6 Bess F H, Poynor R E. Snowmobile engine noise and hearing.  Arch Otolaryngol. 1972;  95 164-168
• 7 Bess F H, Powell R L. Hearing hazard from model airplanes.  Clin Pediatr (Phila). 1972;  11 621-624