Even by Mary Futrell’s high standards, it’s hard to call a night when you raise nearly a quarter of a million dollars and have a day named after you anything but a success.
On April 15, GW hosted a benefit dinner in honor of Dr. Futrell, the outgoing dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the Ritz-Carlton. The event raised $225,000 for the Mary H. Futrell Scholarship Fund, which will help pay for scholarships that enable students to study the subjects Dr. Futrell has excelled in: education and counseling.
Adrian M. Fenty, mayor of the District of Columbia, declared the following day, April 16, Mary Futrell Day.
“Mary Futrell has had an extraordinary career as a teacher, a civil rights pioneer and a national leader in the field of education,” said GW President Steven Knapp, who attended the dinner. “I was honored to join the many friends and admirers who came together to celebrate the 15 years of her deanship.”
The event drew other notable visitors. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus and university professor of public service, and all of the deans and many of the professors at GSEHD attended. L. Douglas Wilder, former governor of Virginia, delivered the keynote address. Dr. Knapp and Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) also made remarks.
“It was very fulfilling to gather with my colleagues, family and friends who so generously honored me and supported the Futrell scholarship fund,” said Dr. Futrell. “Their gifts will enable others to earn the education they need to walk through life’s door of opportunity. It was an evening I will always remember.”
During Dr. Futrell’s tenure as dean, GSEHD has been consistently ranked one of the top 35 graduate schools in the nation, and People magazine called her “one of the most powerful black women in America.” In 1968, she was appointed the first black president of the Virginia Education Association, and in 1983, she was named president of the National Education Association. She joined GW's faculty in 1995 after having earned both a master’s and a doctorate from the university.
“When I think of GW, I think of the wonderful experience I had as a student and the outstanding reputation of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development for its high-quality programs, its support of faculty and its students,” said Dr. Futrell.
Leslie Ward, system specialist of instructional services at GSEHD and a doctoral candidate in educational leadership at GW, also attended the April 15 event. Ms. Ward says it took assigning a black history project to her fifth-grade students for her to truly grasp how groundbreaking Dr. Futrell is.
“To avoid getting 25 presentations on Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, I assigned each of my students a black history hero to research,” she says. “As I searched for heroes in a book of 50 of the most influential black women in America, I found Dean Futrell. It wasn’t until then that I fully understood the impact that she has made on American education. She completely deserves the ‘rock star’ status that she has in the world of education.”
After stepping down at the end of June, Dr. Futrell will take a six-month sabbatical. She will return as a university professor and will teach courses on education policy.