Charles E. Scott and Geneva S. Scott Scottish Rite

Communication Disorders Clinic

by Monte Mitchell

Charles Scott watched recently as teachers at the communication Disorders Clinic at Appalachian State University worked with a group of children ­including a 2-year-old who had never spoken.

­Scott was touched by how the teachers tied to help

“If that doesn’t do your heart good, there’s some ­thing wrong,” he said.

Scott and his wife, Geneva, have helped the clinic for decades. It has now been named in their

honor, after the Winston-Salem couple made a gift of real estate valued at $307,000 to the N.C.  Rite Masonic Foundation, which financially supports the clinic.

The formal name is now the Charles E. Scott and Geneva S. Scott Scottish Rite Communication Dis­orders Clinic.

Charles Scott has been a Mason in the N.C. Scottish Rite for more than 60 years. Since 1977, the N.C. Scottish Rite Masonic Foundation has provid­ed support that makes it possible for the clinic to offer services to children with language and read­ing disabilities whether or not the family can afford to pay for the services.

The primary mission of the clinic is to provide clinical training for ASU students learning to be­come teachers. It’s based on campus now, but will open in a new spot in fall 2007, in the remod­eled first floor of University Hall, off U.S. 321.

In training future teachers, the clinic also pro­vides services to diagnose and help people of all ages who have speech, language, swallowing and hearing disorders. The clinic served 8,000 clients in 2005.

The director of the clinic, Mary Ruth Sizer, said that the Scott’s donation will “augment the assis­tance we receive from the Scottish Rite Foundation to support scholarships for graduate students and help children whose families might not otherwise be able to afford clinic services.”

Charles Scott was there when the Scottish Rite helped establish the clinic, which opened in 1968.

“When we first opened the clinic at Appalachi­an, the children and parents were afraid of us, they didn’t know what we were,” Scott recalled. The Scottish Rite bought two vans and took the services out to schools. It took about five years of outreach until “people were knocking on our doors,” he said.

Scott had a personal reason the work was import­ant to him.

He is dyslexic:

“That’s why I had so much interest,” he said. I had to work like the dickens to keep up in school.”

Scott would make A’s In math, but struggle so hard in English and history that he says he was lucky to pass.

People didn’t understand the learning disorder- then, he said.

“Having dyslexia, I can appreciate this clinic more than anybody can imagine,’ he said. “I had to work hard to get an education so that I could make a dollar or two.”

As an adult he took night classes while he was working at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. He wasn’t

studying toward a degree but found the small class­es at Reynolds helped him learn things that he had missed in school.

 Scott said he appreciates all the help people have given him.

“I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people,” he said. “You don’t know how much we appreciate this oppoitunity to help others.”

Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro

tel 336-867-569) or at mmitchell@wsjournal.corn

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