Lifetime Achievement Award - M. Douglas Walton

M. Douglas Walton was born in rural Louisiana. As an only child, he was doted on by both of his parents. As he matured, his parents discovered he had a problem with his speech being understood. He could hear perfectly, he was normal physically, but no matter how hard he tried to speak, he could not be understood.

Walton vividly remembers the cruelty of grade school and high school classmates. He never went to recess. He couldn’t deal with his peer’s insensitivity. He stayed inside, all alone in the classroom, where no one could bother him.

His first real speech breakthrough came when he was a teenager. His parents heard about a remarkable speech clinic located in Wichita, KS called The Institute of Logopedics. His parents sold everything they owned to pay for his therapy. Fairly quickly therapists discovered that Doug could speak, he just couldn’t pronounce any consonants.

Walton spent years in speech therapy and eventually perfected his speech ability. Throughout his struggle he never had an ounce of self-pity but felt that his speech problem was a gift to explore his passion for art and his spirituality.

Today Walton is an architect-turned-artist who is internationally known and who shares his talent and inspiration with others through intense workshops he calls “Watercolor Encounters.” Somewhat shy, thought today extremely articulate, Walton believes that each individual possesses a genius of expression and simply needs to believe in their own talents and the desire to develop that talent through discipline and practice. He teaches not only art, but also about life and spirit and belief in oneself.

“I teach up to students; they automatically rise to that level. Most people teach down,” said Walton of his “Watercolor Encounters.”