H. Rutherford Turnbull III has served the disability-rights cause as president, American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
PITTSBORO, NC, September 08, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present H. Rutherford Turnbull III, Esq., with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Turnbull celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Turnbull was born in New York, N.Y. on September 22, 1937, and resided for most of his youth in Bronxville, N.Y.
He graduated from Kent School, Kent, Connecticut in 1955, having earned academic honors. Thereafter, he graduated from Johns Hopkins University (1959), where he was co-editor-in-chief of the college newspaper (as was his father before him). At Hopkins, he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and was awarded the Brothers in Arms medal, available to only one member of the graduating class of 1959 for distinguished service to his fraternity. He later was a member of the international board of governors of that fraternity. He was one of many Turnbulls to have graduated from Hopkins since 1893; it was the family's university.
He earned his first law degree (Ll.B.) from University of Maryland Law School, in 1964, where he earned academic honors, was editor-in-chief of the Maryland Law Review, and received the highest award available to a graduating senior, the Dean Roger Howell award for "leadership, scholarship, and moral character...representative of the highest ideals of the legal profession."
After practicing law in Baltimore for four years, Mr. Turnbull earned his post-graduate law degree (Ll.M.) from Harvard Law School and joined the faculty of the School of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
While professor there (1969-1980), he pioneered reform of state laws related to individuals with disabilities. Among the laws he drafted were the state's first special education law and its first limited guardianship law; he also drafted revisions of its civil commitment, patient rights, voting rights, and community-housing laws. He not only was the draftsman of these laws; as counsel to committees of the state legislature, he also was an effective advocate in securing the laws' enactment.
Thereafter, Mr. Turnbull was chairman of the nationally first-ranked special education faculty at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas in 1980-1983. With his wife Ann, he co-founded and co-directed the Beach Center on Disability (1988-2015), an international research center in the field of families and developmental disabilities; and he shared with her the Beach Distinguished Professorship (2006-2015). He also was courtesy professor of law at the university, 1981-2008. He retired in 2014 as Distinguished Professor Emeritus and rejoined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015 as research professor at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.
During his sabbatical from Kansas University, in 1987-8 as a Jos. P. Kennedy Public Policy Fellow, Mr. Turnbull was special assistant at the United States Senate Select Committee on Disabilities and was the principal draftsman of the first law authorizing federal assistance for states to develop systems of assistive technology for persons with disabilities. He also was the principal draftsman of the federal family support law.
He has been an expert witness before Congressional committees nearly a dozen times, advocating for new laws or protecting those already benefitting people with disabilities.
As a scholar, Mr. Turnbull is author, co-author, or editor of more than 351 peer-reviewed books, articles, chapters, monographs, and technical reports. His scholarship addresses nearly two dozen issues of law and ethics affecting individuals with disabilities and their families.
Mr. Turnbull has served the disability-rights cause as president, American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities; director and secretary, The Arc of the United States; trustee and chairman, Board of Trustees of the David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Washington, D.C.; member and chairman, American Bar Association commission on mental and physical disability; and director and secretary, TASH: The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps.
Mr. Turnbull and his wife Ann were recognized in 1999 by a consortium of seven professional and parent organizations in the field of intellectual disabilities as two of 36 persons who "changed the course of history" in the field of developmental disabilities in the 20th Century. They also were voted by their scholarly peers as being among the 162 outstanding special educators in the 20th Century.
Mr. Turnbull has received 46 leadership, research, teaching, and advocacy awards from international, national, state, regional, and local professional and family associations in the fields of intellectual/developmental disabilities and special education. His wife Ann shared in many of those awards, signifying, among other things, their devotion to the cause of intellectual disabilities and their abiding partnership as professionals in that cause.
Mr. Turnbull is an Episcopalian, having been Baptized at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, N.Y.; Christened at Christ Church, Bronxville, N.Y.; educated at Kent School, a boy's Episcopal boarding school in Connecticut; and been a member of The Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, N.C. (1969-1980 and 2015 until his death). When in Lawrence, he was a member of Plymouth Congregational Church (1980-2015).
Mr. Turnbull served on active duty in the United States Army for 16 months in 1962-4 and was honorably discharged in 1966. When in Chapel Hill (1969-1980) and Lawrence (1980-2015), he served his communities as trustee, director, or officer of nearly a dozen charitable organizations, including their private school (as trustee) and ballet theatre (as president).
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, H. Rutherford Turnbull III, Esq. has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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