From David Braddock

Dear Ann and Rud,

I was very saddened to hear the news about your beloved son Jay's death. I know there is nothing I can write or say to lessen the grief you must be feeling. But please know that your relationship with Jay powered a generation of advocacy for improving services to so many people as you well know, while helping inspire students, parents, and professionals all over our country and beyond.

Rud, I can still remember the day at CEC in 1973, as I recall, when I first discovered what I would later learn was Jay’s inspiration of your writing and rock-solid dedication to the field of exceptional child education, law and developmental disabilities. I was reviewing a manuscript at CEC for Grace Warfield, the editor of EC, and was astounded at the power and inspiration conveyed about DD in this policy-connected paper. Who was this author, I asked myself, source and was a “blind” review? It simply couldn’t be anyone I knew in the field because it was simply too powerful in its prose, too dedicated to advancing discovery, and too elegant in its expression of human rights to be anyone I knew. I knew a new force had come into the field of unrivaled person and a lifetime of talent to contribute to our growing field. I would only learn when the article came out nearly a year later that the author was H. Rutherford Turnbull, III. In the following 35+ years you have exceeded by orders of magnitude my high expectations for that shining story of a manuscript and its gifted, inspired author. It was your brilliance and Jay’s inspiration that have given us all so much. It is a great loss, but we cherish what Jay has given all of us; especially, we cherish you and Ann.
Love,
David