Gordon Alley

 2/08/08

Scholarship honors former KU professor of education

LAWRENCE — In the prime of his life, Gordon Alley’s career was cut short.

On an autumn morning in 1982, as the 49-year-old University of Kansas professor of special education was riding his motorized scooter to work, a car hit him. Alley, who had taught at KU since 1970, suffered head injuries. He lived another 14 years but never was able to return to work.

Alley’s wife, Eva Alley, who earned a bachelor’s degree from KU in 1977, and the couple’s children, Steven Alley and Melissa Sears, recently endowed a $30,000 scholarship in his name. The Gordon R. Alley Family Scholarship in Education is for KU graduate students majoring in special education. The inaugural scholarship will be awarded in fall 2008.

“Gordon was dedicated to research and teaching and his love of learning was contagious,” Eva Alley said. “It has been very evident that Gordon's spirit — through his love of life, of teaching and his love for people — would live on through his students and his work in the field of learning disabilities. The gift of assisting future students by means of this scholarship is given in that same spirit.”

Chriss Walther-Thomas, chair of special education at KU, said Alley’s research on learning strategies, his mentorship and his teaching made a decided, long-lasting impact on the department of special education.

“To establish a scholarship that will help pair special educators, teacher educators and disability researchers is something that will be meaningful to students and to the faculty and alumni who knew Gordon,” Walther-Thomas said.

The timing of the new scholarship coincides with the 30th anniversary of KU’s Center for Research on Learning, of which Alley was a founder. The center focuses on solving problems that limit individuals’ quality of life and ability to learn and perform in school, work, home and community.

Donald Deshler, professor of special education, now directs the center. Deshler and Alley met in 1974 when Deshler was a new faculty member. Alley’s dedication to helping older students who had learning disabilities set him apart from others in his field, Deshler said.

“Most people in our field were interested in helping younger children,” Deshler said. “However, Gordon held the belief that older students who had learning disabilities could be taught how to learn so that their performance could be dramatically improved. This was critical — he held that belief, which was generated by his extensive experiences of working firsthand with students.”

Deshler joined Alley in his research. “He took me under his wing as a mentor,” Deshler said. “Every Friday, we’d get together. We came up with ideas, we started planning research and writing grant proposals.”

They also co-wrote a book, “Teaching Adolescents with Learning Disabilities,” originally published in 1979. Now in its third printing, it’s still used as a college textbook. “It was the initial book that shed light on how to teach adolescents with learning disabilities,” Deshler said.

Even now, 25 years after Alley’s accident, Deshler keeps a framed photo of Alley on his desk. “He was just extraordinarily productive, and who knows where his bright mind might have taken him — and the rest of the field,” Deshler said. “He was extremely committed to the work he was doing. When he was injured, it left a huge void in our research center.”

The fund will be managed by KU Endowment, an independent, nonprofit foundation serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

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