Radus, Libby Oral History

Radus_Libby_05022003

Dr. Libby Radus was born Jan 1914 in New York City. She graduated from James Madison High School in 1932. Her mother died when she was fourteen years old. Her father, distraught by the passing of her mother, turned over the family business of restaurant equipment supply to his brother, but it soon failed. As a result, the family was very poor. After graduating from high school, she took a job at R. H. Macy and Company as a packer. By the time the war started in 1941, she was the secretary for the Rug Department’s buyer. Libby decided to enlist in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in early 1943. The Army sent her to Daytona Beach, FL for Basic Training. She was assigned to Stout Field (near Indianapolis) to do office work. Interested in switching locations, she interviewed with the WAAC for Officer Candidate School. She attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Des Moines. After graduation, she was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, GA to attend Officer Training School. At the end of Officer Training School she was sent to Air Technical Service Command at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio. Her job required a Top Secret clearance and entailed keeping track of aircraft in every theater of the world. She liked the job and remained in the Army until March 1946, leaving as a Captain. After the Army, she returned to New York City to visit family and then traveled to Denver Colorado, eventually finding a job as secretary to the Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Denver. Using the GI Bill, she later enrolled into the college while continuing to work 20 hours a week as the secretary to the head of the children’s speech clinic. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in speech and became the assistant administrator at the clinic. She later received a Master’s degree in speech in 1952. After receiving her Master’s degree, she decided to move to Hampton Roads, VA and took a job at the Service League School of Speech. In the early 1960s, she received a scholarship to get her doctorate at the University of Florida. In 1968 she accepted a position as the head of speech department at Riverside Hospital. There she helped develop and fund a highly specialized clinic that treated people with cranial facial anomalies. She retired in 1977 from Riverside Hospital, but continued to work at the clinic until 1993.