Dr. Maynard C. Reynolds

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Reynolds, Dr. Maynard C. February 16, 1922 - October 16, 2012 Born into a homesteading family in North Dakota and growing up in northern Minnesota, Maynard Reynolds went on from his youthful renown as a well-known drummer in a dance band heard regularly over an NBC affiliate radio station in Fargo, to a national and international reputation in the educational world. With a B.S. from Moorhead State College and his M.A. from the University of Minnesota, he taught at the University of Northern Iowa where the Assistant Director of the women's dormitory (Donna) and he became mutually attracted and began a lifelong journey together. In the fall of 1942, he was drafted into the Army. His basic training was in Field Artillery primarily - 155 Millimeter cannons. After basic training he was sent through several replacement depots - the last of them Naumca, New Caledonia in the far western Pacific region and from there to an Army Air Force Service Group with the 13th Air Force. That took him to Esperitos Santos, then Guadalcanal for 18 months and to a series of island commands. His last assignment was in the Philippine Islands. He worked in a variety of jobs mostly in the office of the Commanding Officer of the Air Service Group. He personally started a widely distributed newsletter titled "The Jungle Journal" which for more than 50 years was still being published and distributed to a Wide variety of veterans. After the war ended in December 1945 he entered graduate school at the University of Minnesota. He completed his M.A. and Ph.D studies in 1950. Maynard completed his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota where he taught from 1951 until his retirement in 1989, serving as Director of the Psycho-educational Clinic, Chairman of the Department of Special Education, and teaching in that department -and the Department of Psycho-educational Studies (later named Educational Psychology). He served in the University Senate and in other governing bodies, and his many contributions to the broader professional community included his service as Chairman of the Minnesota State Advisory Commission on Handicapped Children, and as President of the International Council for Exceptional Children. He directed technical assistance activities for several federal education programs, which at peak reached about 250 colleges and universities, aimed at enhancing the educational development of disabled and gifted students. He has written or edited or co-edited 40 books and authored over 150 articles, bringing to a national and international audience his expertise in those areas of "special" education. A notable achievement occurred fifty five years ago when the Minnesota Legislature did something only one other state had come close to doing before. It decreed that "every school district shall provide special instruction and services for handicapped children of school age who are residents of such district." Special education was born in Minnesota. It's as proud a Minnesota export as Spam and Scotch tape. Maybe prouder. When the Minnesota Legislature met only in odd-numbered years, major issues were studied and bills crafted by small, select panels of legislators between sessions - hence, "interim study commissions." The selecting was done less on the basis of caucus or seniority than of interest and ability. Commission members were free to organize their work as they saw fit. They were accountable to the full Legislature, and expected to convert their findings into bills introduced in both the House and Senate the next session. The possibility that many developmentally disabled children might be educated and become full participants in society was ripe for interim commission treatment in 1955. Warehousing the handicapped in state hospitals was increasingly seen as inhumane, costly and, with modern therapies, unnecessary. Research at the University of Minnesota by a visionary professor named Maynard Reynolds was showing what was possible with what eventually was called "mainstreaming." Reynolds and then senator Elmer Andersen connected and concocted a plan of action. According to former Governor Al Quie who also served on the special education panel recalled that: "We became enmeshed in the issue of what could be done and should be done with people who are handicapped. We didn't let ourselves get diverted by all the details about where will we get the money, how does this fit into the public school system, what about the private schools or the state schools and all that. We visited kids. We went to the state schools, the private schools, the public schools in Minneapolis that were already working on this. We went to the homes, where the parent and the handicapped child were. At that time, you often would not see those kids. Those who were mentally handicapped were hidden. Parents hadn't learned how they could be presentable among other people." "We members of the interim commission became comfortable with spastic people, deaf people, blind people, the mentally retarded, the mentally ill. To talk to a girl who was bright, until the car accident, and now she was retarded. ... When a parent said of a blind child, ‘I'm so glad we have him. I never would have known the value of the sense of taste, the sense of smell, the sense of feel, the sense of hearing, without him.' ...When you hear that, you say, ‘I am what we now call challenged, because I don't understand that.' We also are challenged, because we are not fully aware." "There was spiritual growth on that commission. What we came to understand is, there is infinite worth in every individual." That understanding turned the eight commission members into zealots for educating in their own school districts all children deemed "educable" by the standards of the State Board of Education. Their spirit was infectious. It was rare that an interim commission's entire package of recommendations was enacted intact in one session, but that's what happened with special education in 1957. Quie remembers no partisan fight over the program's cost. The package included a state promise to pay two-thirds of the salary of any professional special-education teacher hired to meet the new requirement, "not to exceed $3,600 per annum for each full-time person employed." The late Governor Elmer Andersen, who died in 2004, often said he considered the 1957 special- education law his most important work in a long lifetime of public service. Maynard traveled extensively in South America, Central America, Europe and China. He spent a year in Beijing, China in 1980. After retiring from the University of Minnesota in 1989, he worked part time with Temple University in Philadelphia, PA writing materials, setting up conferences and managing Inner-city projects in the area of special education. He occupied an endowed chair at California State University in Los Angeles in 1990-91 and he spent two years at the University of San Diego. Maynard's wife and three children were his greatest satisfaction in life. Four grandchildren enlarge and enrich the family circle. Maynard's wide network of colleagues around the country brought him much satisfaction as he looked over his life. Another reward was the deep pleasure he received working with dedicated graduate students and teachers who have given their lives to the general education enterprise of working with the atypical student. It is easy to imagine at this very moment how many thousands of people in this country and abroad are deeply grateful for the life of Maynard Reynolds, who has enabled those formerly languishing in the shadows of society to blossom forth to their fullest potential and live out their lives in dignity. He is survived by his beloved wife of 64 years, Donna Lou Reynolds; children, Judy (Neil Suneson), Kathy, and John Reynolds (Helenbeth); along with devoted grandchildren, Ryan Suneson (Jessica Neufeld), Peter Suneson, Jill Reynolds and David Reynolds; two sisters, Dorothy Schoen and Minerva Bennett (deceased). Memorial Service 10:30 AM Friday in the chapel at Wayzata Community Church, 125 E. Wayzata Blvd. in Wayzata. Visitation ½ hour prior to service. Interment Lakewood Cemetery with luncheon to follow at Lakewood's Garden Reception Center. Memorials may be directed to the University of Minnesota Foundation, College of Education and Human Development in Maynard's name. Gearty-Delmore Plymouth 763-553-1411

Published on October 18, 2012