Eugene Hearing and Speech Center History By Thomas Munro The Eugene Hearing and Speech Center has been serving the community for over 50 years. The Center has grown from 60 clients per year in 1955 to 6,000-7,000 each year. The facilities and services provided to today’s clients represent decades of extraordinary contributions by dedicated employees, volunteers, service organizations and philanthropists. EHSC grew out of the Eugene Hearing Society, a group of parents of deaf children, who organized to help find services and hearing aids. University of Oregon professor Dr. Kenneth Scott Wood was instrumental in the Center’s beginning and Duane Anderson was the first Director. With financial and organizational assistance of the Eugene Quota Club, which has a special mission to serve the hearing impaired, and the Kiwanis Club, the Center was incorporated in 1955. The Eugene Moose Lodge made it possible for the Center to own and move from the Children’s Hospital School to the current property at 1500 West 12th in 1957. While a number of organizations contributed to EHSC’s bottom line from the earliest years, it was under the 32-year directorship of Edward P. “Ned” Risbrough that EHSC developed its uniquely intimate relationship with service organizations. Risbrough, a passionate advocate for anyone with a hearing and/or speech disability, was an inspirational speaker and talented fundraiser. By the 1980s, despite additions, the decay of the World War II-era home of the EHSC made services nearly impossible. It was largely due to the generosity of a single donor that the Center’s current expansive building was erected in 1987. Marie Lush pledged over $1 million dollars to the $2.2 million project. Today, under Executive Director Laurence Hamblen, the Center enjoys new levels of success which is due, in part, to the exceptional giving spirit of the Eugene community.