Gunnar and Rosemary Dybwad
Biography courtesy Nora Groce and World Institute on Disability
The Dybwads have had a career that spans fifty years of active participation in the fields of child welfare and mental retardation. Although often working together, both have made significant independent contributions to the field as well.
The Dybwads met in Leipzig, Germany in 1931. Rosemary had come to Germany as an exchange student following her graduation from Ohio's Western College for Women (now part of Miami University), the previous year. A girl working in the foreign student exchange office invited a group of the new foreign students to her family's home for afternoon tea. The girl's brother Gunnar, a student of law and political science at the University of Halle, happened to be home at the time, and Rosemary recalls he seemed very interesting, in part because he drove a motorcycle. Their relationship developed quickly, and Rosemary was soon applying for a second year's studies in order to remain in Germany.
Rosemary returned home in 1933 and began work as a case worker with a local school department. Gunnar came to the United States in 1934 and he and Rosemary were married. Rosemary soon returned to Germany for a year to complete her doctorate at the University of Hamburg. The decision to return to Germany was a difficult one. The political situation had already begun to deteriorate, and Gunnar's family had money which was not allowed to be taken out of the country. They decided to invest the money in an education for his new bride and consequently used their savings to pay for her tuition. So difficult had the political situation become that Gunnary and Rosemary selected the University of Hamburg simply because it was closest to the border, should she have to flee the country in a hurry.
Meanwhile, Gunnar began work in the United States. He had finished his degree in 1934 at the University of Halle, specializing in penal systems, having done research on prisons in Italy, Germany, and England. In the United States he began similar work and in the late 1930s worked in institutions for juvenile delinquents in Indiana, New Jersey, and New York. While working in the New York area, Gunnar took additional course work at the New York School of Social Work, completing the program in 1939. The large number of juvenile delinquents who, upon closer examination, were mentally retarded, sparked Gunnar's interest in the field of mental retardation. When Rosemary returned to the United States, she also found work in women's prison systems, and continued to work until her children were born.
In 1943, Gunnar moved his family to Michigan, where he began work as the Director of Clinical Services at a Boys Training School while Rosemary began their family. Gunnar eventually became the Supervisor of the Child Welfare Program of the Michigan State Department of Social Welfare, regularly hosting visitors from other parts of the country and foreign nations who were interested in seeing their innovative programs in child welfare and child day care.
In 1949, Gunnar returned to Germany briefly as a consultant with the United States Army, spending several months helping with social and child welfare issues in Occupied Germany. From there, Gunnar moved his family back east to the New York area while he served as the Executive Director of the Child Study Association of America.
Gunnar's shift to becoming the Executive Director of the National Association of Retarded Children (NARC) was rather serendipitous. The Board of NARC was meeting at the Gotham Hotel New York and had just finished interviewing 38 candidates for the position of Executive Director. All candidates had been unsatisfactory, and the secretary taking notes raised Gunnar's name only because a fellow secretary already worked for him and thought highly of him. Elizabeth Boggs, a member of the Board already knew Gunnar, realized he was the perfect candidate and quickly approached him to apply for the position. Although new to the field of mental retardation, Dybwad had had extensive experience with families in stress parent groups, voluntary organizations and governmental programs. Perhaps most importantly, his background as a lawyer allowed him to frame issues in legal terms, a new and affective aproach to policy and advocacy on behalf of mental retardation
Gunnar assumed the Directorship in 1957. Some six months later, Gunnar asked Rosemary to come in to the office occasionally as a volunteer, for a large amount of foreign correspondence had accumulated, and there was no one with the time available to read and reply to inquiries and letters. Rosemary, whose children were getting old enough to take care of themselves at home, began to come in on a regular basis and to return correspondence. She was officially listed as the secretary of the International Activities Committee. Eventually she established a newsletter to keep many in touch. (By 1964, this Newsletter would reach readers in 70 countries). She and Gunnar were part of an ever growing network of parents and advocates brought together and kept in touch by the Dybwads.
At the same time, the European Association of Retarded Children had begun to solidify and the International League was beginning to come together. Rosemary's correspondence and publications could not have been more timely, and in fact, often served as a bridge, tying together people, programs and associations worldwide. NARC early recognized the need for international organization, and tried to maintain informal ties. In 1959, the first step to an informal international organization of voluntary agencies was taken when three professional leaders of the movement from Holland, England and Germany met to plan a European League of Societies for the Mentally Handicapped, which was formed in 1960. The first Congress of the European League in 1961 was attended by more than 400 people from 12 European countries and 8 non-European nations. Gunnar Dybwad would eventually serve as President of this International League.
In 1963, Gunnar retired from the National Association. Although he enjoyed his work, he felt
strongly that seven years was enough, and that a regular shift in Directorship was important for any organization if it was to stay vital and responsive to its members. He and Rosemary were hardly interested in retiring from the field, however. They soon found themselves in Geneva, Gunnar the Director and Rosemary the co-Director of the Mental Retardation Project through the Union of Child Welfare. The Union of Child Welfare funded the Dybwads for a three year project, their assignment being to travel from one country to another fostering parent involvement and advocacy in mental retardation issues. Between 1964 to 1967, Gunnar and Rosemary traveled to 34 different countries -- some several times -- to encourage grassroots organizing among parents with mentally retarded children.
In 1967, their time with the Union of Child Welfare almost finished, the Dybwads were invited to come to Brandeis University, where Gunnar became a Professor of Human Development in the Florence Heller Graduate School. Gunnar continued his extensive activities, serving as a consultant to a large number of organizations such as the US Public Health Service, U.S. Office of Education, the Social and Rehabilitation Service Administration the President's Committee on Mental Retardation and numerous state and governmental agencies. In addition, he has been instrumental in advocating legal and political solutions to discriminatory and bias against the mentally retarded.