6-4-12: Remembering Dudley Clendinen

The writer Dudley Clendinen with his daughter, Whitney, in 2007.

The writer Dudley Clendinen died last Wednesday, a year and a half after being diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). His funeral is being held this morning at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore.

ALS is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  For about a year, he joined us here on Maryland Morning every two weeks for the series, “Living with Lou: Dudley Clendinen on a Good, Short Life.”

In this piece, we hear from Adam Nagourney, the Los Angeles bureau chief for the New York Times and Dudley’s co-author on Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America. We also talk with Lora Clawson, the nurse practitioner who oversaw his care at the Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins.

We also hear from Dudley both before and after the diagnosis.  Before becoming ill with ALS, Dudley took up the issue of aging and how Americans spend their twilight years in his book A Place Called Canterbury: Tales of the New Old Age in America.  Tom Hall spoke with him about it in May of 2008.  You can listen to that full interview here:

You can also listen to all of the conversations in the series “Living with Lou” at this link.

The music used in this segment is from the album “Inner Voice,” by Britten, Rochberg, Pärt and Shostakovich.  The song is “spiegel im spiegel,” by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.