Walter Schumm
Professor of family studies and human services
Deployment is not easy on military families, and Walter Schumm knows that from a personal
and professional viewpoint. Schumm, a professor of family studies and human services
at Kansas State University, has studied the effects of military deployment on marriage,
relationships between military spouses and how families cope when loved ones are deployed.
Schumm also is a retired Army Reserve Colonel, serving for more than 30 years.
Schumm's other research interests include evaluation of premarital counseling, Gulf War illnesses, marital satisfaction, family measurement, religion and family life and building a healthy and happy marriage for young couples. He has conducted studies on the Gulf War, the Titanic, Pearl Harbor and is currently researching the impacts of reserve duty on family life.
Schumm received the American Association of Consumer and Family Scientists' Moran Memorial Research Award in 1990 for research in family measurement and other areas of family study, and the Dawley-Scholar Faculty Research Excellence Award from the K-State College of Human Ecology in 1997 for research on military families and Gulf War Illnesses.
He is a member of the National Council on Family Relations and is a certified family life educator and certified family and consumer scientist. Schumm is the co-editor of the Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods, 1993; he wrote two chapters in the book. He has spoken before the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families.
Schumm received his bachelor of science in physics from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., his master's in family and child development from Kansas State University and his doctorate in family studies from Purdue University. He joined K-State in 1979 and teaches family theories, marital interaction and various research courses.
Throughout his career with the Army Reserves, Schumm received numerous decorations and service medals including the Legion of Merit in 2002, three Meritorious Service Medals, seven Army Commendation Medals, two Army Achievement Medals, the Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Army Service Ribbon and Reserve Component Overseas Training Ribbon.
During the Gulf War, Schumm served on active duty in San Antonio, Texas, for 12 months and managed military transportation movements to and from the Gulf region. In 1995, his statistical analysis of the redeployment of equipment earned him an award from the Defense Transportation Association as their second best defense transportation journal article.
Schumm can be reached at 785-532-1494 or by e-mail at schumm@k-state.edu.