Hall of Fame Member Biographies

Dr. Floyd Wesley Emanuel

The state of Oklahoma has been blessed with a cadre of cutting-edge healthcare researchers and teachers. One of them is a native Oklahoman, Dr. Floyd Wesley Emanuel. Dr. Emanuel earned his B.A. and M.A. in Speech Pathology at the University of New Mexico and then his doctorate at the University of Oklahoma in Communication Disorders. With his Ph.D. acquired, he was added to the OU graduate faculty in Communication Disorders. In addition to extensive graduate-level teaching and research-direction duties, Dr. Emanuel became in 1967, the first full-time coordinator of a multidisciplinary Cleft Palate Clinic at the University Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. During his career, he obtained a national reputation for his clinical and research activities. A fabulous graduate-level teacher as well, Dr. Emanuel received numerous Outstanding Teaching Awards. He directed eighteen Ph.D. students in their dissertation research and likewise guided the academic work, clinical training, and research of many times that number of M.A. students. He authored or co-authored thirty-one research articles in the most prestigious journals in his field. He has also given numerous invited oral presentations based on his scientific and clinical work to a variety of professional audiences. As evidence of his standing within his professional organization, he was elected a Fellow in the American Speech and Hearing Association in 1973. One of several lasting contributions he made to the OU was the creation of a speech science laboratory within his academic department that was designed to facilitate both faculty and student research. A second was in building the Cleft Palate Clinic from a caseload of 40 patients to over 300. The Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society is honored to include Dr. Floyd Wesley Emanuel among the inductees to the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame for 2009.