Idaho speech therapist and author Deborah Wieser published stories and games to help special education students. Photo Credit: Daily Bulletin

In addition to teachers, there are many talented individuals who make up a school community. Speech therapists are among these Chalkboard Champions. One of the most inspirational speech therapists I have ever read about was Deborah Wieser, who worked in schools in the Inland Empire area of Southern California.

Deborah was born on Feb. 8, 1949, in Butte, Montana. She was the elder of two daughters born to Eddie and Florence Thomas. When her younger sister, Kemera, was diagnosed with a developmental disability, Deborah devoted her spare hours to helping to care for the child. This volunteer work is what led to her decision to work with Special Education students.

While attending high school in Butte, Deborah excelled in her classes and served her school as a cheerleader. After graduating with honors in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Montana, Missoula, Deborah moved to Southern California, where she inaugurated her career as a speech therapist in the Chino Unified School District. Her career there spanned an impressive 45 years.

In addition to her work as a speech therapist, Deborah authored several books and created educational games to help teach the learning-disabled. For these efforts, she earned the first-ever Speech Therapist of the Year Award from Chino Unified Schools.

In 2016, Deborah retired and moved to Coer D’Alene, Idaho, where she continued to work with challenged students on a part-time basis. While living there, she formed a friendship with Atsuko Kroetch, a visual artist who designed and created the stained glass windows for the Coeur D’Alene carousel. Deborah wrote accompanying stories for the decorative pieces. Then she worked tirelessly for several months visiting every fifth grade class in her town to read the stories and collect names for the carousel ponies from the students. After the students cast ballots for the names, Deborah organized judges to select the final winning names.

Sadly, Deborah passed away on March 27, 2022, from a prolonged battle with metastatic lung cancer. But she will always be a Chalkboard Champion in our book.