First Endowment Fund Dedicated to Graduate Study for Persons with Disabilities

SALISBURY, MD--A Silver Spring, MD, resident has created the first endowment fund in the University System of Maryland for a scholarship dedicated to graduate study for persons with disabilities.

Bayne Richmond “Rick” Dudley, who was born with cerebral palsy and has served as an advocate for persons with disabilities under three Maryland governors, has bequeathed up to $500,000 to the Salisbury University Foundation to establish a scholarship at the Eastern Shore campus.

Dudley, 53, is not the stereotypical foundation benefactor. According to family and acquaintances, he combines an earthy sense of humor and joie de vivre with a propensity to say exactly what he’s thinking. His upper torso is covered with tattoos and he had a fondness for working out in the gym--before being sidelined by serious illness earlier this year. Beneath the cultivated iconoclastic exterior, however, is a sharp, sensitive mind with a love of education and commitment to aiding and serving people with disabilities.

Born and raised in the Baltimore area, Dudley said one of his strongest memories as a child was “My father helping me on with my leg braces and telling me to do the best I could in school, because that is how (through furthering his education) I’m going to make a living.” He went on to Towson University where he graduated in 1972 and enjoyed a successful career as a senior program analyst with the U.S. General Services Administration.

Dudley said he chose the Eastern Shore campus for the scholarship for several reasons: “I believe great programs exist in the Baltimore-Washington corridor (for persons with disabilities), but beyond that region folks are left in the lurch. And I’ve always had an affinity toward the Eastern Shore because of the friendly people.”

One of the biggest influences in his decision-making was his cousin, Dr. Janet Dudley-Eshbach, who introduced him to SU when she became its president last year. Set on a compact 140 acres, the University boasts an attractive landscape that is flat; buildings close together and easily accessible; and no roads crisscrossing main campus, which instead is centered on a wheel-chair friendly pedestrian mall. As early as 1981 SU was winning governor’s awards for barrier free design.

“Rick’s life was more difficult, in many ways, than the lives of those cousins who gathered at Christmas and at other special times throughout the years,” said Janet Dudley-Eshbach. “His life presented great challenges. But the ‘D’ in Dudley stands for determination.

“Rick faced many difficulties throughout his life,” said Dudley-Eshbach, “but he was also fortunate. He is part of a family that strongly values higher education.”

Dudley said he decided to dedicate the endowment to scholarships for persons with disabilities at the graduate level because such funding is so limited. It’s easier, he said, for undergraduates with disabilities to get financial assistance. “People with disabilities can go to college and get jobs. Now it’s a matter of going as far as you can in your career. This scholarship will allow people who have proven themselves to develop their careers.” The scholarship will provide up to $5,000 a year for three years.

University officials see the endowment as a good match for the Eastern Shore campus which is both expanding the number of its graduate programs and working to increase the diversity of its student body.

Shortly after graduating, Dudley began working as an advocate for people with disabilities, serving on the boards of directors of United Cerebral Palsy of Central Maryland and the United Cerebral Palsy Association, the Maryland Development Disabilities Council, and other state organizations appointed by governors Marvin Mandel, Blair Lee and Harry Hughes.

“When I went on vacation (on the Eastern Shore),” said Dudley, “I thought how good life was. Maybe it’s time to spread some help and encouragement around here.”

According to Paul Rendine, a Salisbury stockbroker and Eastern Shore advocate for people with disabilities, one out of every five Marylanders suffers from some form of disability, based on accepted definitions under the Americans with Disabilities Act. They range from spinal chord injuries to learning and visual impairment.

For more information visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu or call 410-543-6165.