Charlie was born May 11, 1935 in Madison, Alabama, attended High School in Thomson, GA., received BCE degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1961, served briefly in US Army Corps of Engineers as 2nd Lt. and entered the civilian workforce as an engineer with the Federal Aviation Administration-Airports Division in 1963.

He moved to Orlando, Florida in the fall of 1992 and had his laryngectomy in Atlanta, GA on March 24, 1993. His cancer was a sarcoma, not typically caused by smoking. He initially used the electro larynx and now speaks with a TEP. Retired from civil service in 1998 and presently lives in Largo, Florida with his wife of 10 years, Nancy Blair, MS-CCC-SLP. Their combined family includes 6 grown children and 7 grandchildren. He is past VP of the GOLF laryngectomee club, current President of the Suncoast New Voice Club and previous FLA President 1999 -2002. He is the present editor of the FLA NEWS. He has attended all FLA Annual Meetings since 1993, including 2 sessions of the FLA Voice Institute as a VIP in 1994.

Bob had his laryngectomy in July of 1992 at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. His speech is through a TEP. He and his wife Linda moved to Florida in 1996 and in August of this year they will celebrate their 43rd wedding anniversary.

Their daughter and granddaughter live in Orlando. Their son died from cancer 13 years ago at the age of 23. Bob reactivated the Space Coast New Voice Club in 1998 and has been the President since. He has attended 4 FLA and 2 IAL conventions. He continues to be a guest speaker for the Cancer Society speaking to schools and various other organizations. In October of 2006 Bob was awarded the Courage Award by the Brevard County unit of the American Cancer Society.

Maggie, a retired Social Worker, was born in Revere, Massachusetts on December 29, 1943 and was raised in another suburb of Boston called Melrose. She has lived in several New England states and Tennessee before moving to Florida in 1986.

She had her laryngectomy in April, 2001 at Monroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Florida. Later, she went to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas and underwent further rehabilitation to be able to talk hands free using the Barton-Mayo button with the TEP. Maggie resurrected the Nu Voice Club of Ocala in December, 2002 and was its President and Secretary until February, 2007. She remains as the ACS local laryngectomee support contact for North Central Florida and personal contact person for laryngectomees/families in her local area including pre and post op visits, loan closet items, education activities as well as anti-smoking efforts.

He was born in Chicago Illinois on March 25, 1938, and moved to Florida in 1985. Married to Wini going on 48 years and the proud parents of two loving girls and a son Bruce who we lost in a tragic accident in October of 2005.

Earl spent most of his working days in the food industry, starting out as a stock-boy in a local grocer. From there he went to work for Swift & Company for a number of years, before becoming a home delivery Milk Man. From there he went into the Industrial Catering Business were he went from a route driver, up the ranks to General Manager. At the time he went into partnership with his former Boss, running a corporation with over 100 employees. They had 36 Lunch Wagons that went from Construction site to Car Dealers, to small factories. This grew into a complete Vending Line for midsize factories, and also included a number of in house Cafeterias through out the Chicago Area. Once he sold his investment and came to Florida, he spent over 14 years with 7-Eleven stores through out the Ft. Lauderdale. Fl. area.

He became a Laryngectomee in 1988 and continued working for 7-Eleven until his retirement. His Church has now become his greatest passion, along with his activities with A.C.S., the F.L.A. and the New Voice Club of Broward County. His greatest concern since given a second chance at life is to help others overcome anything that might get in the way of doing what his Lord has in store for the remaining years. He has received the American Cancer Association’s 1998 Courage Award, Southeast Region, the JC Penny Golden Rule Award, the FLA’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and the prestigious Jerry Hough Memorial Service Award in 2006 and a past President of the F.L.A.

Ed was born in Washington State on February 20, 1937. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1960 from Whitworth College, a Master of Education degree from the University of Oregon in 1964 and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1971. In 1964 he was appointed an instructor in Speech at Portland State University.

Thereafter he became an instructor in Otolaryngology, promoted to assistant professor and then associate professor of Speech in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Michigan. Later he was an assistant professor, rising to associate professor of Speech Pathology in Otolaryngology and Graduate Programs at Indiana University School of Medicine and Indiana School of Dentistry. Dr. Stone began his career at Vanderbilt University in 1987 as an associate professor of Speech Pathology in the Department of Otolaryngology.

Upon the creation of the Vanderbilt Voice Center, he became the Director of Vocology. Retiring from Vanderbilt in 2002, he was appointed to the Emeriti Faculty at Vanderbilt University. Ed is the current FLA Director of Education and has served this organization for 24 years much of it as the Director of the FLA Voice Institute, the most successful long running venture of that type outside of the IALVI. Dr. Stone recently resigned as the IAL VI Director to pursue other challenging opportunities. He had held that position for 6 years. He is an FLA Hall of Fame honoree for 1991.

Lisa was born in Buffalo, NY and currently has a private practice providing Speech Pathology services at Mayo Clinic-Jacksonville, FL. Lisa has a BSEd Degree from State University of New York at Fredonia and a MS Degree in Speech Pathology from University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Lisa has 19 years with FLA, serving for many years as Director of our former Voice Institute. She is a certified voice instructor for the International Association of Laryngectomees (IAL), a previous member of the faculty for the IAL Voice Institute and currently the Voiceprints coordinator for Whispers on the Web. She is an FLA Hall of Fame honoree for 1998. She is married to Joe.

Charlie is past President of the FLA and the Treasure Coast Club. He is currently the loan custodian /contact for Treasure Coast. He has been a regular attendee of the FLA Annual Meetings and is an active participant in local anti-tobacco school presentations. He continues to serve the laryngectomee community in a variety of endeavors. He is an FLA Hall of Fame honoree for 2006.

Butch was born July 1, 1940 in Montezuma, IN and raised in Silverwood, IN. He spent 6 years in the US Army, 2 of which was in Germany. After leaving military service he operated a charter bus out of the Chicago area throughout the US. Later he started driving semi-trucks hauling OJ from Florida to multiple US cities.

He continued driving and owning his own truck until diagnosed with cancer of the larynx on Feb. 15, 2000. Initial treatment consisted of 62 treatments of radiation between March and April of 2000. However, the radiation was not successful so a total laryngectomy was performed on July 20, 2000. He had smoked since he was 15 and was smoking 3 packs a day when he first got the bad news. He lives in Plant city (winter strawberry capital of the world) with Martha, his bride of 31 years. They have 4 sons, 1 daughter and lost one son to cancer at age 41.

They have 5 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren and in their words, “they are the delight of our life”. Butch speaks with an Electro Larynx.and continues to find projects that keep him busy, but the one he enjoys most is taking care of flowers & plants in the yard. Butch gives strong credit to the dedicated efforts of caregiver’s and states “Without Martha I fully believe I would be dead right now”, and adds, “ The Golden Years are really golden!”

Born in Russell Springs, Kentucky, grew up in Indiana and moved to Florida in 1969. She is currently a Speech Language Pathologist with Morton Plant Mease Healthcare, Clearwater, FL.

She received her BS degree in Speech Pathology from Purdue University and her MS Degree in Speech Pathology from the University of South Florida. She has been involved with FLA programs for 20 years and has 23 years experience with laryngectomees. Married to Charlie Blair since 1997. She was a co-director of the former FLA Voice Institute, is a certified voice instructor for the IAL and has served on the faculty of the IAL Voice Institute. She is an FLA Hall of Fame honoree for 1995 and is the current webmaster of the FLA Website.