ABSTRACT
Claims abound that listening research started in the mid-twentieth century with a handful of scholars employed in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota. In a hagiographic gesture that honors the founder of the Association, the public relations materials for the International Listening Association (ILA) claim that (emphasis added):
Any history of listening would be remiss if it didn’t start with “The Father of Listening,” Dr. Ralph G. Nichols. All listening roads led to the University of Minnesota for over 25 years prior to the formation of the International Listening Association. Dr. Nichols pioneered, popularized and parlayed the missing “L” back into learning the world over. 1
