Mary A. Dudley

DUDLEY, Mary A. Was born at the new Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC on April 25, 1937 as the first of four children for Margaret Elinor Clark (born 29 Oct 1912 Goldendale, WA, died 25 Aug 1983 Canyon City, OR) and Raymond DeLacy Adams (b 13 Feb 1911 Portland, OR d 18 Oct 2008 Chestnut Hill, MA). Both families escaped the bondage of England in the 18th and 19th centuries to become farmers in America from upper New York to the Carolinas. Not knowing about fertilizer, they burned out their land and moved westward about every ten years to Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, Washington, and Oregon. Elinor Clark lost both parents to tuberculosis and the Spanish flu to become an orphan at age six. She was separated from her sister and raised by two strict and protective aunts. Ray's father as a young teen fled his elderly, severely strict, Methodist minister father in New York to hobo the rails to Portland, OR. There he delivered milk by horse wagon and became supervisor of baggage clerks at the Union Pacific Railroad station. Elinor and Ray were the first members of their family to: 1) go to high school, 2) go to college, and 3) get doctoral degrees. Their emphasis on education was supreme. At age two months for Mary, the family moved to Boston, MA so Ray Adams could become a resident in Neurology at Boston City Hospital. He quickly rose to become Chairman of Neurology at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) where he created a department of renown as he published many medical books (his last at age 87) and seminal scientific papers. Elinor Adams gave birth to John William (Bill) Adams (b 23 Oct 1939 Boston, MA, now in Orland Park, IL), Carol Ann Adams Hoffman (dec'd) Still (b 15 Aug 1941 Boston, MA, now in Kalispell, MT), and Sarah Ellen Adams Archibald (dec'd) Aldrich (b 17 Apr 1946, now in Beaverton, OR). Elinor became President of League of Women Voters, the Association of University Women and, after receiving her Masters in Romance Languages from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1936, earned her PhD in Romance Languages at Boston University in 1966, one week before Mary got her PhD at Duke. By age 9 it was apparent the public schools could not keep up with Mary so the family moved to Milton, MA where she could be a day student at the rigorous Milton Academy. Here she continued to excel but came to abhor the Charles Dickens manner of lower grades than deserved, punitive measures for mediocre performance by others, and rapid dismissal of students over minor events. Classmates were mostly Boston Brahmans, including Cabot, Lodge, Proctor, Gamble, Tenley Albright (Olympic figure skating gold medalist), Adlai Stevenson Jr, etc. Presidents John and John Quincy Adams lived in the neighboring town of Quincy, MA so it was assumed Mary was descended from John Adams (little did they know). She was forced to become a Boston debutante lest her younger sisters be black balled, but detested every moment of snobbery and decadence. Her younger sister subsequently refused to participate. Milton Academy would not let students smoke unless they were Seniors with a B average; then they went to a remote room. This was such a strong status symbol that Mary started smoking at age 16, as did the eligible classmates. A classic example of unintended consequences. Mary converted a room in their barn to a geology and biology laboratory. With family living across the country, she was able to amass a sizable collection of rock types, geodes, and fossils that needed no labels because she knew all about the metals and minerals. When Mary's own boys finished high school, that collection was donated to the Science Museum of Shaker Heights, OH High School. She kept in cages every small mammal type she could get from MGH, turtles, frogs, dead birds and insects, dried leaves from trees, grasses, and flowers, and other biological specimens. Her favorite pet was a mixed breed dog, Tokey, and second favorite a quarter horse, Blaze, she always rode bareback. She became an accomplished pianist playing with chamber groups in Boston and sang alto with the chorus for the Messiah with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Practicing in the family's very cold music room triggered arthritis in childhood that disabled her from playing after age 45. She was a skilled seamstress that enabled making her own clothes from high school onward and she made all of the boys clothes until Izod appeared in middle school for Eric. Learning a European technique for knitting, she could produce a full sweater in one week, but by age 30 needed bilateral carpal tunnel surgery. Her basic mantra was, ""If anyone else in the world can do it, I see no reason why I cannot."" Because her parents were very busy and she so talented, she acquired an ""adoptive godfather"", Justin Hope, who was married but childless. He was childless because his wife was white and he was 25% African so they were banned by adoption laws. Justin took Mary to games of the Boston Red Sox, Braves, and Bruins, Harlem Globetrotters, museums, concerts, etc. He taught her nuances of the sports (hit and run) and she taught him the evolution of classical music, instruments, and opera. Mary had a boundless soft spot and affection for blacks. Her favorite piece of music came to be The Chorus from Verdi's Nabucco where the Israelites were being released from slavery in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. The impact was huge when we first heard it in Warsaw, Poland after having toured the Jewish ghetto. Goose bumps; standing ovation over five minutes. Her family was required by their mother to speak only French. Summers of her middle and high school years she was sent to Europe to polish her French in Lyon, France, and learn German in Cologne, Germany, Fribourg, Switzerland, and Ghent, Belgium, for both languages. She insisted on going to Duke University for college in 1955 to be further away from home and independent, and to help the South learn to appreciate the potential of blacks. Orientation week included completion of file cards with demographics (name, address, phone no, etc). The following day she was called into the Dean's Office because where the card called for race she entered ""Black"". She explained she looked around the auditorium with 375 lily white girls and decided the question was silly. Two days later, she was in the Dean's Office again because she scored 100 on both French and German placement tests. No one had ever done that before and proctors assured the Dean she had not cheated. Mary explained her upbringing and the Dean was satisfied. To Mary's consternation, she was still required to take two years of language for graduation and, fortunately, opted to start in second year German. However, she sat in the seat closest to the exit so she could escape as soon as the bell rang. Bud Dudley (Alden Woodbury Dudley Jr b 15 May 1937 Lynn, MA, now in Roanoke, VA) entered Duke the year before and struggled mightily with first year German. Dreading second year German, he entered the room and was immediately taken by the gorgeous girl in the first seat. They met and enjoyed each other very much, but did not date because Bud had no money (Mary had dates every Fri and Sat night with others). At the end of the year, they agreed to take dreaded third year German only so they could continue seeing each other. In Nov, the Professor asked Bud if they were engaged and where was her ring? Bud admitted liking Mary very much, but having no money. In Dec Bud invited Mary to a basketball game against #1 Kentucky (student admission was free, might cost a Coca Cola). Duke pulled off an upset in the last seconds, they gave each other a hug, and that was it. No need for either to date anyone else. Mary got all of her degrees from Duke University with her undergraduate degree as a BS in Botany in 1959. Work for her Master of Science degree (1961) was at the Duke Marine Biology Laboratory in Beaufort, NC where she investigated how plants in brackish water adapt to changing salinity with the tides. They upregulate their sodium pumps to push excess salt back into the ocean. Her PhD in Microbiology (1966) was for determining how Mycobacterium tuberculosis synthesizes its own vitamin B3 (niacin), since M tbc is the only living organism with that capacity. Unable to afford marriage (12 Sept 1959), it was delayed until Mary graduated and Bud finished his first year of medical school. They still could not afford it, so Mary had a full time job as a Microbiology technologist at the VA while working on her Masters in Botany, and Bud worked three hours six days each week through medical school. Mary then won a coveted National Science Foundation fellowship for partial support toward her PhD degree. She was told by the administrator it was a pity she won the award because it really should go to a man that could then support a family. They had three sons: Alden Woodbury (Woody) Dudley III (b 10 Aug 1962 Durham, NC, died 19 Mar 1978 from a bike accident in Mobile, AL); Raymond Adams (Adams) Dudley MD (b 27 Mar 1965 Bethesda, MD to the present in San Francisco, CA as Prof of Internal Medicine at UCSF); and Eric Clark Dudley OD (b 17 Nov 1966 Durham, NC to the present in Charlotte, NC as a practicing optometrist). Adams is married to Kirsten Johansen, MD (b Palma, OH 8 Feb 1964), also Prof of Internal Medicine at UCSF. They have one son, Carson Woodbury Dudley (b 15 Oct 2001), and one daughter, Alana Taylor Dudley (b 25 Sept 2004). Eric is married to Lisa Carol Davis Whitman OD (b 25 Nov 1969 Abilene, TX, now in Charlotte, NC) with her own practice of optometry. They have two girls, Rachel Elizabeth Whitman (b 16 Aug 1991 Abilene, TX) and Terah Dee Ann Whitman (b 12 Feb 1995 in Abilene, TX). Bud served in the US Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD from 1963 to 1965. Mary finished her PhD thesis in 1964 to join Bud, and Adams was born in Bethesda. On return to Durham from 1965 to 1968, Mary was offered a position with her new PhD at the Research Triangle National Institute of Environmental Science with a salary of $13,000. On reporting to work the following week, they announced they learned her husband was a physician (resident with menial pay) so they had reduced her salary to $8,000 (this pattern continued throughout her professional career). She left for nearby Duke where she did research in immunopathology using a brand new invention, the electron microscope, and publishing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (by invitation only). She taught biochemistry at North Carolina Central College to black only nursing students and demanded a high performance. Other faculty rejected her exams, vowed the students would not pass, and said their responsibility was to give a degree for job hunting. The students performed better on the exams than would have the faculty. Mary was the only faculty member invited to bring her family to the class graduation picnic. She also attended a NCAAP meeting and insisted on better performance to earn authority rather than expectation of handouts. She and her family were harassed by the Ku Klux Klan for several years, but had bullet proof windows in their porch study.
In 1968 they left for the University of Wisconsin in Madison for Bud to establish a program in neuropathology. There she developed a new muscle biopsy laboratory, research showing tunas could be used for food despite the mercury in their meat (bound to selenium and relatively innocuous), and research showing anesthetics caused learning disorders in adult (unexpected) and newborn rats. The two years of tuna research ended the infamous ""tuna wars"" between the US and Mexico and Japan, etc. When living in Madison, she was President of the PTA and raised attendance from 10 to over 100 at meetings. When they moved in 1971 to a farm to raise the boys under more rigorous conditions, they found themselves planting 30,000 trees over four bitterly cold seasons called ""Spring"". Mary taught drapery making to 4H mothers and daughters, ran the library in the village and doubled the budget and circulation, regularly reported election results to the National Center in Chicago for syndicated news reports, and was nominated in 1976 to the Governor's Committee on Education of Gifted Children. Unfortunately (she was a victim of the trailing spouse syndrome), they moved again. In 1976 they moved to Mobile, AL for Bud to become Chair of Pathology at the University of South Alabama. Here Mary created a research arm for the department that was completely equipped for research in anatomical or clinical pathology, earned grants, and published many papers. This included a poster describing a new disease of muscle for which she was runner up for the best clinical paper of the national meeting. Mary provided piano accompaniment for violin students in regional competitions. An avid traveler in search of knowledge, she went to all 50 states to learn about American Indian archaeology, sociology, and art. From Mobile she made several trips to many parts of Mexico to study the Mayan culture and birds in jungles and swamps. Then they lost Woody and she retreated to her bed until they moved 18 months later. In 1980 they went to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Mary initially worked as Quality Control Officer for ICN Biochemicals but quickly moved to Cleveland Clinic where she studied super saturation of bile in the gall bladder. Adding visualization of bile and gall stones by transmission and scanning electron microscopy, she obtained significant new grants from NIH for the lab. They enjoyed the Cleveland Orchestra under Loren Maizel. Mary could hear any piece of classical music on the radio and know, within four bars, the composer, name of the piece, and approximate date of completion. They also enjoyed the Museum of Art with its emphasis on Oriental arts. A radio guide or docent was never needed because Mary recognized each item at every museum in America and Europe at first glance. In 1985 they moved to Houston, TX and Baylor College of Medicine. Mary joined the Children's Nutrition Research Center to do research in physiology of piglet intestines to determine when and how they upregulated enzymes when challenged with new foods. Staying in Houston for 11 years enabled Mary to finally earn an international reputation for her work. After presenting a paper at an invitational meeting in Germany, the next eminent speaker from the University of Pennsylvania asked, ""How does one compete for an NIH grant against work like that?"" Her interest in gardening was manifest in their back yard that had no lawn. Bird feeders attracted, among other things, a family of rare ringed neck turtle doves found only in Europe and Houston. The Gulf Coast was a Mecca for birding and many weekends were devoted to that hobby. Though not fond of it, she was proficient in duplicate bridge to placate her husband and they often won in Houston. Travel from this base went to Central and South America to see the artifacts of the Incas and the Galapagos Islands. She ventured into Yugoslavia d and Hungary in 1988 when the Iron Curtain was still strong and the rest of Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall came down. The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg was her highlight. In 1996 they moved to South Orange, NJ when Bud became Coordinator of Laboratory Services for eight VA Medical Centers throughout the New York City area. Mary's piglet research continued at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark and Rutgers University in New Brunswick until retirement in 2001. Able to see all of New York City from their apartment, this became a base for travel to Egypt and Turkey to study Islam, India to study Hinduism, and China and Japan to learn Buddhism. Mary was sewing clothes on 9/11/01 with the television on but silent so she could change her focal distance every ten minutes. She called Bud to say she saw on the TV and confirmed by looking out the back window that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center (WTC). Half an hour later she called to say it had happened again and could they leave for Roanoke right that minute? Instead, they packed their apartment as scheduled over the next two days and left the third day. The mover that arrived to a locked down VA on 9/12 was driving a Ryder rental truck (as used in the first attack on the WTC), African-American, and truly named John Smith! He was a delight and insisted on moving us personally in two medium trucks rather than turn us over to an 18 wheeler. Shortly after arriving in Roanoke, Mary volunteered at the Salem VAMC to credential physicians and expedite critical paper work. At the same time, she was designing their retirement dream home with special features for her sewing, playing bridge, and enjoying a view across the Valley from Sugarloaf Mountain for 60 miles into the Appalachians to Eagle Rock and up north to the Peaks of Otter. She joined Newcomers, played bridge at the Brambleton Senior Center (predictably invited everyone to their house for a July 4 picnic and fireworks across the Valley), and never met anyone that did not like her. Pain-limited travels in this phase were to Australia, New Zealand (she loved the Maori tribal woman Dame Kiri Tikanawa), Alaska, and Hawaii. She also attended Cave Spring United Methodist Church where she was once again an alto in the choir. When the Assistant Minister (in training) lost his rental house to foreclosure, she immediately insisted his family of four (boys 3 and 5) move into our house for three months before moving to his new church in Powhatan, VA. Sadly, she started developing in 2001 a series of crippling fractures (lifetime more than forty) from osteoporosis that persisted until taking daily shots of Forteo for two years (now cured). She also had a cluster of small strokes in 2003 from acquired sensitivity to nicotine in her cigarettes. Smoking cessation slowed progression of white matter damage markedly and unexpectedly eliminated her colonic polyps. In the second half of 2013, she had three episodes of diverticulitis leading to an abscess, peritonitis, and near death. Mandatory, life-saving surgery two months after recovery became protracted to five hours because of extensive adhesions from the peritonitis. Her own research-proven poisonous effects of anesthetics on the nervous system destroyed the rest of her memory immediately. Extensive raw wounds in the abdomen from lysis of adhesions, removal of small bowel, an abscess, and the sigmoid colon caused such pain and nausea she could not eat enough and lost one-half pound each day. Her weight went from 145 on 27 Nov 2013 to 95 on 1 Mar 2014 when she died at 8:50 AM. Mary's lifelong pain from arthritis, osteoporosis, and colon distress made her very sensitive to others in pain, either physical or emotional. This led to her endless generosity toward others in many ways. Not only inviting single seniors every fourth of July and insisting a displaced family of four move in for three months, she also assured newly acquainted fellow travelers with handicaps they would be assisted by at least Bud, basements would be finished for better quality of life for others, gave surplus vegetables to RAM, clothes to the Discovery Shop or Goodwill, etc. When her father died in 2008, every penny of inheritance went to the Duke University School of Medicine to start the Dudley Family Academic Scholarship Fund for medical students. The world has lost an incredible woman, but is better off in many ways for her having been here. May she rest in long overdue, pain-free peace. There will be a Celebration of Life service with refreshments at Cave Spring United Methodist Church at 4505 Hazel Rd on 5 Apr 2014 at 2:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, contributions to the Scholarship Fund above would be much appreciated by Mary.