H. Rutherford Turnbull

H. Rutherford Turnbull III is an American author, educator and leader in the field of special education policy and law. He is Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor of special education and law at University of Kansas. He co-created numerous laws at the state and national level which reformed policy for individuals and their families affected by intellectual, developmental and emotional-behavioral disabilities. He has been a senior officer or director/trustee for Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States (1981-1983), American Bar Association Commission on Mental and Physical Disability 1990-95, chairman 1992-1995), The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps (1987-1990). From 1985-1986, he served as the president of American Association of Retardation. He was recognized by the Association for Retarded Citizens as Educator of the Year in 1982 and the Franklin Smith Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. From 1995-2007, he was a board member of the Board of Trustees at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and a Chairman from 2000-2005. He co-wrote the 2012 book, Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today's Schools.

Turnbull graduated from Kent School in 1955. In 1959, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Johns Hopkins University. In 1964, he received a bachelor's in librarianship from University of Maryland Law School and a master's in librarianship in 1969 from Harvard University Law School.