F. Ann Cerf, Former Director Of UW Speech, Hearing Clinic

People sometimes asked F. Ann Cerf why she decided to study Chinese. "Because I'll never finish it as long as I live," she told them.

Mrs. Cerf was a scholar, who loved learning for learning's sake. And she believed that if a thing was written down, it could be studied and learned.

In her 62 years, the University of Washington speech and hearing professor and clinician also learned painting, calligraphy, gardening, gourmet cooking and how to repair her Mercedes.

"She was a hell of a woman," said her husband, Fred.

Mrs. Cerf died at home of breast cancer Oct. 10. Services will be Sunday Oct. 27 at 3 p.m. at the East Shore Unitarian Church.

Mrs. Cerf was born in West Virginia in 1928, and her engineer father helped inculcate her devotion to reading and learning. As a young woman, she won a Fulbright Scholarship and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Fred Cerf, a Boeing attorney and honorary consul to his native Luxembourg, met his wife in the 1950s in Washington, D.C., where he was working his way through law school and she was teaching and getting an advanced university degree in romance languages.

He was struck, he said, by her candor, her elegance and her progressive attitudes.

At a dinner party in 1955, the year they were wed, she "gave a diatribe about equal pay for equal work when nobody was advocating that," he said.

"Ann was out jogging when other people were still sitting around wondering why anybody would do that," said her friend and neighbor Jan Brandt.

After marrying, the Cerfs lived 10 years in Denver, where Mrs. Cerf went back to school for a master's degree in psychology. In 1968, Fred Cerf went to work for Boeing, and the couple settled in Kirkland.

Mrs. Cerf enrolled in school again, at the University of Washington, within the next year and earned a master's in speech pathology. She started as a research associate, according to Prof. Wesley Wilson, chairman of the speech and hearing-sciences department, and earned her Ph.D in 1972.

"She was a classically trained individual with wide, wide interests, and a pleasure to talk with," Wilson said. "I guess what struck me most was on almost any topic you could have a very interesting discussion with Ann."

Mrs. Cerf specialized in stuttering, a speech disorder whose study pulls together diverse fields, including neuroanatomy, physiology and psychology. Current theories on what causes stuttering lean toward a combination of a physiological predisposition and emotional factors, but still remains largely unknown.

"It is more of a mystery," Wilson said, "and I think that would intrigue a person like Ann."

Mrs. Cerf became director of the university's speech and hearing clinic in 1974, where she remained until her retirement in June. She oversaw graduate students' work, supervised a staff of 12 and did therapy with stutterers.

"I think she was excellent in both respects," said Prof. Dave Prins. "I've had people come up to me at national meetings who had received help from her and wanted me to say hello and tell her how well they were doing. I think she was extraordinarily dedicated."

One of her students, Barbara Mather-Schmidt, now a professor at Western Washington University, said Mrs. Cerf's warmth, wit and wisdom helped her personally and professionally.

"She helped a great many," she said. "She helped me a lot with balance in my life. One of the best pieces of advice she ever gave me was, `You'll only be pregnant for the first time once.' It was stop and enjoy life, and get perspective. And she gave me all kinds of things I'm using in my teaching now."

Mrs. Cerf was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago, was treated and remained cancer-free until 1989.

When the disease returned, it took an enormous toll. "Toward the end of her illness, people forgot how terrific she was," Mather-Schmidt said. "I want to help them remember."

Fred Cerf never forgot. "She gave an awful lot to her students, her family and her friends," he said.

Mrs. Cerf is also survived by a son, Allan, and daughter Roxane Engelhardt-Cerf, both of Seattle; grandchildren Andrew and Elyse Ann; and a brother, James Duval of Houston. Instead of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society.