College of Education and Health Professions Mourns Passing of Professor Richard Roessler

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Rick Roessler shows the first edition, left, of the textbook he co-authored with Stanford Rubin and the seventh edition to which Phillip Rumrill was added as an author in 2017.

Emeritus University Professor Richard Roessler, one of the preeminent scholars in the field of rehabilitation counseling, died Sept. 21, 2023.

Roessler, 78, spent his career developing programs to help people with chronic illnesses and disabilities return to or stay in the workplace. He joined the U of A College of Education and Health Professions in 1971 as a professor of Rehabilitation Research and Training. During his 39 years as a faculty member, he received numerous awards and published multiple articles, books and book chapters about rehabilitation counseling.

He co-authored the seminal textbook in the rehabilitation field, Foundations of the Vocational Rehabilitation Process.

"The textbooks he authored shaped the field in ways that are impossible to overstate," said Brent Thomas Williams, an associate professor who has worked in the college's counseling program for more than 20 years. "His accomplishments in service, teaching, advising and research were rarely, if ever, paralleled."

Williams first met Roessler in 2002 when Williams joined the College of Education and Health Professions as a faculty member. "Rick was welcoming and supportive, and our relationship quickly went from colleague to mentor to friend," he said. "Few individuals have had a more profound and enduring impact on my life than Rick."

Williams said while Roessler's accomplishments are legion, his legacy is the kindnesses he bestowed on those with whom he interacted. "Whether it was a colleague, a student he was teaching or advising, or a participant in his research, Rick earnestly regarded the individual," Williams said. "The lives of people with disabilities did not matter to him in the abstract; they mattered down to the person. He cared about people and devoted his life to making individual lives better."

Williams said in his 24 years as an academic, he has never met anyone more genuine, empathetic or sincere in their willingness to help. "I aspire and endeavor to care in the way he did," he added.

Roessler was a faculty member in the Department of Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders when the current College of Education and Health Professions dean, Kate Mamiseishvili, joined the college. "He was admired and loved by everyone in our department," she said. "He was a giant in his field, but humble about his accomplishments. He was kind, had a great sense of humor and was supportive of all his colleagues, especially new faculty."

Reed Greenwood, dean of the college during Roessler's tenure, called him an exceptional faculty member. "He excelled at teaching, research, publications and service," Greenwood said. "As a good citizen, he served on numerous boards of local nonprofits to help build programs that served people with disabilities."

Roessler was a Fayetteville School Board member for seven years. He also served on the Sources for Community Independent Living board, a Northwest Arkansas nonprofit serving people with disabilities.

Greenwood said Roessler was known for his collegiality and dedication. "Rick was devoted to his students and maintained friendships with them long after they completed their studies," he said.

Phillip Rumrill, a professor of counselor education and director of research in the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky, was one of those students.

"Dr. Roessler's commitment to his students and their success didn't stop at graduation. Not for me and not for countless others who were fortunate enough to study with this true pioneer in our discipline," Rumrill said. "Working with Dr. Roessler for the past 32 years has been the highlight of my career and one of the great joys of my life."

Rumrill met Roessler in 1991. It was Rumrill's first day as a first-semester doctoral student at the U of A. "I asked Rick if he had any research projects I might get involved with - he had several," Roessler joked. "So started our lifelong collaborative relationship and deep friendship that grew to transcend our work together."

Rumrill said Roessler facilitated many incredible opportunities for him throughout his career. "He generously allowed me to tag along with him to a total of 73 different national and international conferences — I counted them just the other day," Rumrill said. The two also collaborated on 92 professional journal articles, four commercially published books and 15 grant-funded projects.

"Importantly, before I met Dr. Roessler, my career totals in all of those dissemination categories were the same - zero. Rick got me started in this work worth doing we call rehabilitation counseling, but he continued supporting and encouraging me in all of my career pursuits for the rest of his life," Rumrill said. "We are all profoundly saddened by the news of Dr. Roessler's passing, but his legacy of scholarship and humanity that he established at his beloved University of Arkansas will live on."

Rumrill said anyone who had the honor to know Roessler will always remember his humility and modesty, love of learning and teaching, work ethic, unconditional positive regard for people, generosity with his time and spirit, and keen but always kind sense of humor.

"Dr. Roessler shaped the field of rehabilitation counseling in so many ways - with his groundbreaking research, his textbooks that are still in circulation today, his lectures at national and international conferences, his teaching and advisement of graduate students who went on to leadership roles in the profession and his unflinching advocacy on behalf of Americans with disabilities," Rumrill said. "This unassuming, self-deprecating gentleman who never wanted to draw attention to himself caught the attention of every person involved in our field over the past 50 years."

Rumrill said Roessler left the rehabilitation counseling field in better shape than when he found it. "He has left this world a great deal sadder for his passing, but a great deal better for the good and long life he lived," Rumrill said. "Dr. Roessler's work is done here, but the impact he has had on us all will endure forever. May this one-of-a-kind gentleman and scholar — in that order — rest in peace."

Roessler is survived by his wife of 56 years, Janet Williams Roessler, daughters Jennifer Roessler Schultz and Kristin Roessler Higgins, and three grandsons.

Roessler's life will be celebrated at 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 29, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville. A reception will immediately follow in the Parish Hall.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Butterfield Trail Village Foundation (memo: Healthcare Center Fund), 1923 E. Joyce Blvd., Fayetteville, AR 72703, or Sources Building Fund, www.arsources.org, 1918 N. Birch Ave., Fayetteville, AR 72703.