In 1947, Malcolm Fraser, a man from Memphis, Tennessee, knew about stuttering from personal, often painful experience.

[3] He met with Dr. Charles Van Riper, a prominent stuttering speech therapist at the time, to discuss founding a nonprofit charitable organization.

Its goal was to provide the best and most up-to-date information and help available for the prevention of stuttering in young children and the most effective treatment available for teenagers and adults.

In 1928, Fraser joined his brother Carlyle, who founded the NAPA Genuine Parts Company that year in Atlanta, Georgia.

[5] The Foundation was involved in projects by Dr. Dennis Drayna[6] of the National Institute on Deafness and other Communicative Disorders searching for genetic markers.