Richard L. Schiefelbusch was born in Osawatomie, Kansas on July 23, 1918. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Kansas State Teachers College (1940), his masters from the University of Kansas (1947) and his PhD. from Northwestern University (1951).

Schiefelbusch served the United States in World War II, becoming a German prisoner of war at Stalag Luft. Schiefelbusch began teaching at the University of Kansas in 1947 and became a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 1989.

While at KU, Schiefelbusch oversaw the establishment of a speech and hearing clinic, acting as director from 1949 to 1956, and he helped develop the Intercampus Program in Communicative Disorders. He founded and directed the Bureau of Child Research (director 1955-1990) and its successor, the Institute for Life Span Studies, which now bears his name.

Schiefelbusch also served as director of other organizations: the Kansas Center for Mental Retardation and Human Development (1968-1969), the Kansas Research Institute in Learning Disabilities (co-director, 1977-1981), and the Gerontology Center at KU (1989-1991), among them. He also served as consultant for many organizations, including the State Department of Child Health and Human Development, the Public Health Service, the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, the National Office of Education, and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Schiefelbusch has written extensively, publishing over twenty articles, collaborating on over twenty books, contributing over twenty chapters to books, and presenting over 200 papers at symposia, workshops, and seminars in forty countries.