Family Establishes Helen Dudley Teacher Education Scholarship

JONESBORO – To encourage individuals with outstanding potential to make an impact in a career in the field of teaching, the family of Helen P. Dudley has endowed the Helen Dudley Teacher Education Scholarship at Arkansas State University.

The grandchildren of Mrs. Dudley, along with their father Judge Robert H. Dudley of Little Rock, established the award in honor and recognition of the graduate and former professor at Arkansas State. She also taught in the public schools of Jonesboro and was a clinical psychologist. She was the mother of Judge Dudley.

“We are so pleased to honor Mrs. Dudley with this scholarship,” said Chancellor Kelly Damphousse. “I enjoyed learning from Judge Dudley about his mother’s lifetime of service at Arkansas State University and in the public school system.

“Scholarships like this one make it possible for our students to focus on learning without the burden of working too many hours in a week. This scholarship has a special significance because it will be given to a future teacher who is currently a single parent. I am so grateful to the Dudley family for their thoughtful gift to our students.”

The scholarship will be bestowed upon a student who is a single parent with the objective and desire to make a great impact as a teacher. Qualifications for the award will be without limitation based on sex, ethnicity, race and without regard to the level of the pursued degree.

Mrs. Dudley’s grandchildren include Debbie Dudley Branson, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Education degree in English from A-State in 1977 and practices law in Dallas, Texas; Kathy Dudley Helms, who practices law in Columbia, S.C.; Cindy Dudley Longshore, a housewife in Montgomery, Ala.; and Robert H. Dudley Jr., who lives in Little Rock and is owner of Mayflower RV. The Dudley family has practiced law and education in Arkansas for more than a century.

Helen Ann Paslay was born in Forrest City and married Denver Layton Dudley of Jonesboro in 1925. She was a graduate of Forrest City High School’s class of 1920 and attended the University of Arkansas. She later earned a bachelor’s degree in social science in 1950 from then-Arkansas State College, and went on to receive a master’s degree in special education from Wayne State University in Detroit.

Helen worked as a clinical psychologist and, during World War II when there was a teacher shortage in the public schools, she began teaching in the public school system. She later taught at A-State.