Wilbur James Gould

The late Dr. Wilbur James Gould was one of the world's preeminent otolaryngologists, a talented pioneer in the field, and the physician of choice for many top pop and opera singers, film stars, newscasters and politicians - including Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Clinton. After removing a polyp from Lyndon Johnson's larynx, the President is said to have referred to him as "the only legitimate cut-throat in the White House." In 1969 he founded the Voice Foundation in New York (now relocated to Philadelphia) to bring together people involved in various arenas of voice science with performers.

In 1983, Dr. Gould founded the Recording and Research Center at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). Dr. Gould and DCPA founder Donald Seawell had seen the need to create a major research facility within a major performing arts center. That center was posthumously renamed the Wilbur James Gould Voice Research Center in 1994.

The Gould Voice Research Center was designed to study the voice and speech production of stage performers and allow those and other performers to utilize the results with the object of learning to increase their own vocal artistry. The Gould Voice Research Center was to become a true center -- the focal point for the vocal arts and sciences -- for the collaboration of voice professionals with the arts and sciences.

Dr. Gould was director of the department of otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat disorders) at the Lenox Hill Hospital (New York City) during a period when it innovatively treated voice problems. At Lenox Hill, he founded the Vocal Dynamics Laboratory, an internationally recognized treatment center that specialized in physical problems of the ear, nose and throat and related psychological problems.

Among the several medical instruments Dr. Gould invented are the Gould forceps and a laryngoscope. He was the co-inventor of an optical laryngoscope.

Dr. Gould died of a heart attack on February 5, 1994.

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