Dr. H. Rutherford Turnbull died last week on March 17. I was one of the many who admired his advocacy and legal scholarship for people with disabilities. Though he was a lifelong Episcopalian, I had the privilege of serving as his pastor when he died, and like many of his friends, I knew him as Rud. “Rhymes with ‘mud,'” he used to say to my young daughter.

Don’t let his gentle way with young children mislead you. “Lions of his caliber are rare,” a former student remarked in tribute. As a lawyer, Rud shaped much of the legislation for Americans with disabilities, laws that are under attack today. I regret that we have lost Rud’s voice at this critical juncture.

The dismantling of the Department of Education is deeply affecting Rud’s life’s work. While our current federal administration claims that services for children in special education will continue, all but three of the employees who actually distribute the funds to schools have been fired. The government has already cut over 600 million dollars in funding, which would have supported special education, low-income, and rural schools. It is a moral abomination to forget that all children are our children.

But let me step off the soapbox to explain why special education is so critical to our entire society. Rud, along with his beloved wife, Ann, authored textbooks aimed to equip educators to integrate students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms. Their motivation was deeply personal; the Turnbulls had a son, Jay, with intellectual and social disabilities.

Rud told the story of Jay’s senior year of high school. They were living in Bethesda, Maryland, so that Rud could work with Senator Thomas Harkin of Iowa on legislation that would become the Assistive Technology Act, a powerful tool for educating children with disabilities. Since he was able to be enrolled in the public high school, Jay became the manager of the football team. Rud said that, at the end of the year banquet, the three captains of that team had to draw lots, for each one wanted the honor of giving Jay his letterman jacket. As Rud put it, the beauty of integration was reciprocal—a young man who passed out towels to the athletes then received recognition and gratitude from those same players. This experience speaks highly of those individuals, and yet it would not have been possible without the funding for skilled educators and programs. This is what we are fighting for today.

While it’s true that advocates like Rud Turnbull are rare, it doesn’t mean that you and I should remain silent. The onus and imperative are upon good people of every faith. Raise your voice and, as Rud would say, raise hell.

Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of the book with Wipf and Stock Publishers titled This Is the Day: A Year of Observing Unofficial Holidays about Ampersands, Bobbleheads, Buttons, Cousins, Hairball Awareness, Humbugs, Serendipity, Star Wars, Teenagers, Tenderness, Walking to School, Yo-Yos, and More. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he is a student of joy.

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