Quint Studer - Early Life

Early Life

Studer was born in 1951 in LaGrange, Illinois. His father worked at a GM locomotive plant, and his mother was a pre-school teacher's aide. He faced a number of hardships, including partial deafness and a speech impediment, which caused him to fall behind in school. He graduated with a 1.3 GPA and tried to enter the military, but was turned down due to his hearing disability and diminutive stature.

Studer later recalled, "This was the height of the Vietnam War, when they were taking just about anybody off the streets. That is, everybody but me."

He took the ACT college entrance exam on a whim and received good enough scores to enter University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on probation status. Barely making good enough grades to remain in school, Studer turned to alcohol and, following an unplanned pregnancy, married his first wife before his sophomore year. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in special education and began working at a Janesville, Wisconsin high school, where he found success preparing the mentally retarded for a workplace environment. After returning to college for a master's in special education, Studer was honored by city and county organizations as "Outstanding Young Educator of the Year."

Studer's personal life was marred by alcoholism. He marks Christmas Day, 1982, as the point when he realized the seriousness of his problem: "I was hungover from drinking until the bars closed on Christmas Eve and sitting in my living room staring at a Christmas tree without any presents. I was 31 and had had two failed marriages and was way in debt. Something had to change."