Department Roots

The history of the Department of Speech and Dramatic Art began in 1940 when Dr. Leroy Laase was called from Hastings College by Chancellor Boucher, who thought that the various aspects of speech and drama training were badly organized and poorly staffed. He unified the scattered department by administrative fiat and gave Dr. Laase the mandate to create an umbrella department where the various areas of communication were housed under one roof.

Although Dr. Laase faced many problems in his early years as chair of the Department of Speech and Dramatic Art -- the Great Depression, World War II, he continued to fight for whatever resources there were. He was often frustrated, naturally, given the times in which he chaired the Department. By the time Dr. Laase was reaching the end of his tenure at UNL, the umbrella department he chaired consisted of well-developed areas of Speech Communication (including Communication Education), Theatre Arts, Speech Pathology and Audiology (including a Speech Clinic), and Radio and TV.

During Dr. Laase's tenure as Chair the graduate program was also developed. In 1945, the Department submitted a request to offer an MA degree and the first Master's was conferred in 1947. In February 1967, the Ph.D. program for the Department was approved and the first doctorate was awarded in 1971.

Dr. Bruce Kendall (faculty member) was an outstanding teacher and a true mentor. Campus leaders commonly came to him for counsel and dialogue about campus matters before they presented their ideas to student governance. Graduate students especially found his instruction inspiring and uplifting. Former students Phil Tompkins, University of Colorado, and Wil Linkugel, University of Kansas, who went on to long and successful careers, both commented upon the powerful influence Professor Kendall had on their lives in their recent retirement presentations. Both acknowledged that they dialogued about ideas with Professor Kendall in their minds long after his untimely death in 1969. The department at Purdue University, where Kendall went when he left Nebraska in 1965, still has a major teaching award named after him. Professor Kendall also had a major influence on Bill Seiler, the present chair of the department, when he was at Purdue University working on his Ph.D. degree. ** A Bruce Kendall teaching award in the Department of Communication Studies at UNL was established in Spring 2005 and is given annually to an outstanding faculty member and/or a graduate student.

**The Bruce Kendall Teaching Award