by Marilyn Warburton Lutter
Rudy Lutter was born on February 9, 1932, in Philadelphia, Pa. He died of cancer and Parkinson’s disease at the Washington Home in Washington, D.C. on December 14, 2003. We were married on September 29, 1979, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. by the minister of the church I attended while a student at Wilkes University and during the years I worked there.
Rudy, who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at the age of nine, was a graduate of Overbrook School for the Blind, Penn State University and Harvard Law School. He also studied at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
Early in his career, he engaged in the practice of law in Philadelphia. After moving to Washington in 1962, he served as senior attorney advisor in the broadcast bureau of the Federal Communications Commission until 1980. In 1981, he joined the faculty of Howard University’s School of Communications where he taught communications policy and law-making until his retirement in 1998. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he taught part-time at New York University and the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
Rudy visited more than 50 countries on seven continents and several islands for recreation and the study of the mass media. I had the pleasure of joining him on many of those trips. We shared many memorable experiences among them: setting foot on the Antarctic continent; riding a camel in the desert in Tombouctou, Mali and sticking our fingers in the Arctic Ocean. In 1985, we visited Gore Island off the coast of Senegal, a major embarkation point for Africans sold into slavery. Rudy, who was much braver than I, actually walked the gangplank that led to the slave ships.
As a result of his education and employment, he was a member of several organizations, including the Harvard Club of Washington, D.C.; the Howard University Law School Association; the American Association of University Professors and the World Future Society.
As an advocate for people with disabilities, he was a member of the Board of Managers of the Overbrook School for the Blind; Volunteers for the Visually Handicapped (now known as Services for the Visually Impaired); the Pennsylvania Governor’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped; the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped; the National Capital Council of Citizens With Low Vision; the D.C. Council of the Blind and the American Blind Lawyers Association. He attended the Pennsylvania Governor’s Conference on Handicapped Individuals and the White House Conference of Handicapped Individuals.
In 1973, he was recognized as a leader of the disabled in America by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including Pennsylvania State University’s Liberal Arts Service to Society Award; recognition by resolution of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for contributions to humanity through the practice of law, teaching and efforts on behalf of the handicapped; Distinguished Alumnus of the Overbrook School for the Blind and recipient of the Friedlander Medal for his longtime service as a member of the school’s board of managers.
As you can see, 24 years of marriage to Rudy have held much joy and satisfaction. Although Parkinson’s and his loss of hearing in later years forced him to curtail many of his public activities, he continued to advocate on behalf of people with disabilities using the telephone and correspondence. He retained his intellectual curiosity, his wonderful sense of humor and his love of life until the very end.