LD Blog

J. Lee Wiederholt

J. Lee Wiederholt, a widely published author in special education and assessment, died suddenly 19 August 2007. Professor Wiederholt, who was senior vice president of the publishing firm Pro-Ed, trustee for the Donald D. Hammill Foundation, and the trustee of the Hammill Institute on Disabilities, was widely known for diverse contributions to special education and, especially, Learning Disabilities.

After obtaining a doctorate from Temple University in 1971, Professor Wiederholt served as a member of the faculty at the University of Arizona and University of Texas. For much of his career, he was also affiliated with Pro-Ed, a publishing firm that specialized in tests, books, curricular materials, and journals in the area of special education and related disciplines. For ten years he served as editor of the Journal of Learning Disabilities.

As an academic, Professor Wiederholt provided valuable contributions to our understanding of Learning Disabilities. In 1974 he authored an important history of Learning Disabilities that is still routinely cited in texts and other histories of the discipline. For ten years he served as editor of the Journal of Learning Disabilities. As an author and publisher, he developed widely employed assessments such as the TOAL-4: Test of Adolescent and Adult Language and the GORT-4: Gray Oral Reading Tests, among many others.

Thanks to the Donald D. Hammill Foundation for providing the accompanying photograph.