Margaret Anne Inman

ORANGE, Calif.-Feb. 20, 2008-Dr. Margaret Anne Inman, founder of Providence Speech and Hearing Center, died peacefully in her sleep Feb. 15 at her home in Newport Beach. She was 90.

As a nun with no resources, Dr. Inman started the renowned nonprofit organization in 1965 in a little adobe house in Orange, just 12 months after leaving her home at the Providence Order of Sisters at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind.

With the support of legendary philanthropists like the late Carl N. Karcher, Providence Speech and Hearing Center would become one of the largest special-treatment facilities of its kind in the world.

Sister Ann Monica, as she was known at the time, first came to California as a speech pathologist to begin a project of evaluating children referred through staff physicians in a small office no bigger than a broom closet at newly opened Children’s Hospital of Orange County. She became frustrated as the line of patients grew longer and the means to treat them became shorter. While doing her best to provide care to the children and adults who eagerly sought her assistance for their speech disabilities, Dr. Inman quickly realized the need for her services heavily outweighed the space she had and looked to Dr. Merl Carson, the medical director at CHOC, for help. Dr. Carson suggested that she start a clinic.

Dr. Inman recognized the need for more comprehensive services for a much larger number of children in the 1960s. Empowered by the need of the community and the backing of several caring and concerned citizens who provided funding, the Providence Speech and Hearing Center opened its doors in 1965.

“My youngest daughter, Mary, suffered from speech and hearing problems as a child,” Karcher, a founding board member at Providence Speech and Hearing Center, once said. “We brought her to Providence and under the care of Margaret Anne, she overcame these difficulties. Margaret Anne has since helped thousands of others with communication disorders.”

With a mission to help the thousands of Southern California residents who were stricken with a communication disorder, Dr. Inman was determined to raise sufficient funds to build a place large enough to expand her services to include hearing care while accommodating the growing number of people in need. Hearing care was established, thanks to the addition of the center’s first audiologist and fellow Sister, Margaret McElroy, and the first facility expansion was realized when six adobe houses were purchased by supporters in an effort led by Karcher, the founder of Carl’s Jr. restaurants. Dr. Inman named the nonprofit organization she founded after her order.

“She was a master teacher,” McElroy, a longtime friend, said of Dr. Inman.

The booming population growth in Orange County forced Providence Speech and Hearing Center to expand again. By 1980, ground was broken on a six-story medical building, in which Providence Speech and Hearing Center would occupy the entire first floor in a collaborative effort with St. Joseph Hospital.

Dr. Inman’s goal was always to help anyone, regardless of age or financial situation, reach their potential as better communicators.

“She was a marvelous teacher and such a dynamic person,” said Sister Dorothy Marie Ahern of the Providence community.

Dr. Inman, whose only “child” was Providence Speech and Hearing Center, sat on the board of the nonprofit organization until her death. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the prestigious Mother Theodore Guerin Medallion as an outstanding Saint Mary alumna and a Lifetime Achievement Award last November by Regional Center of Orange County at the 11th annual RCOC Spotlight Awards at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.

In 1990, the Orange County Board of Supervisors proclaimed a “Dr. Margaret Anne Inman Day” to honor her years of distinguished services to Orange County. She also became Executive Director Emeritus at Providence Speech and Hearing Center, receiving letters of commendation from Governor George Deukmejian and President George Bush. She received the Orange County Philanthropy Award in 1987. Under her direction, the center was honored by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the Disneyland Community Service Awards Committee, the Orange County Register Charities and the Mission Viejo Company for Outstanding Civic Contributions, among other distinctions.

“She was a great lady who touched so many peoples’ lives,” said Tustin’s Sister Mary Jo Piccion, who had Dr. Inman as a teacher in high school. “She had a very compassionate way of dealing with people with disabilities.”

Born April 5, 1917, in Greencastle, Ind., Dr. Inman received her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and master’s degrees in biology and speech pathology from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis. She earned her doctorate in special education from the now-defunct University of Beverly Hills. The title of her dissertation was “The Language/Learning Relationship.”

While at Marquette, Dr. Inman became fascinated with speech pathology and helping children whose speech was nearly incomprehensible because of speech or hearing impediments. “It would be wonderful to help those little children,” Dr. Inman once said, recalling a time that changed her life.

“The department chair in speech pathology at Marquette contacted someone at the Sisters of Providence to let them know about her special and unique abilities to work with these children with speech and hearing disabilities,” McElroy said.

Providence Speech and Hearing Center is adjacent to St. Joseph Hospital and CHOC.

A visitation for Dr. Inman will be open from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 21) at Ferrara Colonial Mortuary, 351 N. Hewes St., Orange.

A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday (Feb. 23) at Our Lady Queen of Angels, 2046 Mar Vista Drive, Newport Beach.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Providence Speech and Hearing Center (1301 Providence Ave., Orange, CA, 92868 or www.pshc.org).

For additional information or quotes, contact Guy Owen or Christi Owen at (714) 639-4990 or Providence Director of Marketing Christina Webb at (714) 923-1539.

McElroy, who will give one of three eulogies at Dr. Inman’s memorial service, is also available for media interviews at (434) 973-6429 or (434) 996-4267.

1301 Providence Ave., Orange, CA 92868-3892 ? (714) 639-4990 ? Fax (714)744-3841 ? www.pshc.org