Ruth Lesser, a renowned figure in the field of aphasia and speech therapy, has died at the age of 95. She played a major role in academic speech therapy organizations and was instrumental in transforming the speech department at the University of Newcastle.
Academic Career and Contributions
Lesser joined the sub-department of speech at the University of Newcastle in the late 1970s, when it was under threat of closure. She took it in hand, becoming senior lecturer in 1982, head of the department of speech in 1983, and professor of speech and language pathology in 1991. Under her leadership, the department gained national and international respect. Upon retirement in 1995, she was made professor emeritus and continued academic work for another decade.
Lesser authored more than 30 books, including Linguistics and Aphasia (1993) with Lesley Milroy, as well as numerous chapters, papers, and reviews. She served as vice-president of the International Association of Logopaedics and Phoniatrics from 1992 to 1995 and was a founder of the British Aphasiology Society in 1987. The PALPA assessment, developed in 1992 with colleagues to measure language processing skills in people with aphasia, remains in use and exemplifies her drive to make speech therapy an empirical science.
Early Life and Education
Born in Bradford, Ruth was the third of four children of Annie (née Bottomley) and Joseph Hird, both teachers from mining and weaving backgrounds. At age 16, while a pupil at Grange Grammar School, she demonstrated resourcefulness when her parents mistakenly put her on a train to Edinburgh instead of France; she eventually arrived at her intended destination. Rather than taking up a place at Somerville College, Oxford, which would have required an extra year at school, she chose to study English at University College London, where she met her future husband, David Lesser.
Family and Later Life
Ruth and David married in 1952 and moved to a smallholding near Nottingham, where David worked for Viyella. They had five children and moved to Felixstowe when David joined Fisons. The family was active in Liberal party politics in Suffolk, Bristol, and later Newcastle. Ruth earned a degree in speech therapy at Newcastle University in 1971 and a PhD in psychology in 1976. She worked as a speech therapist for the local health authority at the Royal Victoria Infirmary before joining Newcastle University as a lecturer in 1978.
From the late 1970s, Ruth was limited by rheumatoid arthritis but continued to enjoy traveling in retirement, often with family. She joined the local U3A and was active on social media. David died in 1985. Ruth is survived by her children, Tristram, Giles, Juliet, Tammy, and the author; 10 grandchildren; and 19 great-grandchildren.
