Waverly the Therapy Dog Remembered

Waverly, a therapy dog who worked with those who stutter in Alaska, passed away recently. She would have been six years old in June.

Condolences are pouring in from around the world.

"Waverly left us very suddenly — and as always with beloved dogs — way too soon," wrote Margaret Griffo, who is a speech-language pathologist and used Waverly to help with therapy.

Waverly was featured in the Stuttering Foundation's Winter 2016 Newsletter. Waverly worked so well with her patients, Margaret said, because dogs are non-judgmental. “People are judgmental, dogs aren’t. And those who struggle with fluency know the difference.”

Waverly is remembered as "an extraordinary dog worthy of a book, who — through her absolute unconditional love, generous, trusting spirit and desire to support those who were hurting or in need — touched many in Alaska as well as the lower 48. She fulfilled a great purpose every day of her life. Her eyes seemed to be able to read people's souls and she reached the hurt inside. Never demanding anything in return, she sought out and bonded with those in need. She was loved, she loved, and she will be remembered."

Waverly was Alaska's first Certified National Crisis Response Canine and loved all the places she went and the people she met.

Posted May 23, 2019

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Bruce Willis

While the world knows Bruce Willis as an A-list actor, few know that he struggled with stuttering throughout his first 20 years.

Walter Bruce Willis was born in 1955 in West Germany to his German mother, Marlene, and his American GI father, David Willis. The family settled in David’s hometown of Penns Grove, New Jersey in 1957, and the couple has three other children.

Winston Churchill

Seeking to "remove Winston Churchill's stutter by second guessing the diagnosis" indicates neither a truthful retelling of history nor an informed opinion about a complex speech disorder, say experts in the field of speech-language pathology.

Recent news reports that quote Dr. John Mather, a Washington physician, as saying that Churchill's stutter "is a lie" brought adamant critical response from specialists in the field of stuttering and fluency disorders.

Lewis Carroll

The recent Disney version of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, garnered a great deal of media hype. Even though the mainstream media has not made mention that Carroll was a person who stuttered, his family history gives credence to the discovery of the genetic link to stuttering. Carroll was born to parents who were first cousins; almost all of their eleven children, three girls and seven boys, struggled with stuttering past childhood.

Bill Withers

While Bill Withers has long been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter, many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away on March 30, 2020.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.

Frank Wolf

This Virginian congressman has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1981. The longtime supporter of the Stuttering Foundation drew national attention to childhood stuttering in 2006 when he submitted an article about Tiger Woods from the SFA newsletter to the Congressional Record. The congressman is featured in the Stuttering Foundation's Famous People Who Stutter brochure.