Paul Dodyk ’55 Celebrates 30 Years of Leadership Giving in the Cranbrook Schools Twenty-First Century Club

As a youngster, Paul’s chief ambition was to be a long-haul truck driver, which would allow him to see the country and avoid stamping fenders in the factory. After starting in the Hamtramck public school system, Paul’s older brother directed his path to Cranbrook, knowing it would best prepare him for higher education.

 

“Coming from Hamtramck, the campus was strikingly beautiful. Instead of having thirty kids in a class, I had twelve. The teachers knew me. Some of them took a particular interest in me. I felt nurtured,” he recollects.

 

Art Palmer was one such teacher, the housemaster in Marquis – where Paul would become Senior Prefect; English faculty member – where Paul would become editor of the Crane; and head tennis coach – where Paul would become captain in his senior year. “By the time I was through Cranbrook, I was determined to be a lawyer. And a lawyer who never lost sight of fighting for and representing those who are less advantaged.”

 

Art nurtured and inspired Paul’s trajectory to attend Amherst College. At Amherst, he continued to thrive, earning a Rhodes Scholarship alongside Cranbrook classmate Peter Dawkins ’55. At Oxford, Paul started a lifelong friendship with Stephen Breyer, which would continue as they enrolled at Harvard Law School and earned clerkships on the Supreme Court.

 

After graduation, Paul began what he calls “the most exciting period of my time in the law,” as an assistant professor at Columbia Law School. He joined Edward Sparer, the director of the Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law at Columbia, who worked to protect the legal rights of low-income individuals. Soon, Paul was teaching the first course in any American law school on law and poverty, writing the case book for the course, and, when Sparer left Columbia, Paul became the faculty director for the Center, now renamed the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ).

 

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Paul and the Center were at the heart of a series of Supreme Court cases that transformed public entitlements – establishing them as legal rights rather than administrative and bureaucratic decisions – and memorialized in Supreme Court cases including King v. Smith in 1968 and Goldberg v. Kelly in 1970. Collectively, this work expanded and protected access to public benefits for millions of Americans.

 

After his groundbreaking work in law and poverty as professor and director, Paul returned to the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City to gain additional practical experience. For nearly a decade, he worked on IBM litigation in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the United States government. With a successful outcome for IBM in 1981, Paul turned to recruiting for the law firm and increasing his volunteer leadership commitments.

 

In the 1995-96 school year, Paul joined the inaugural membership of the Twenty-First Century Club (TFCC), the leadership giving society of The Cranbrook Schools Fund. He has been an annual member of the TFCC – recognizing leadership gifts of at least $1,000 – every year since 1996. This year, the Twenty-First Century Club celebrates 30 years of impact.

 

“It was always my intention after leaving Cranbrook to give back,” he says. When invited by Cranbrook to join the Cranbrook Educational Community Board of Trustees in the mid-2000s, he did not hesitate, thinking, “I have to do this.”

 

“I always felt that Cranbrook was a fundamental keystone to my success. How many auto workers’ children end up clerking on the United States Supreme Court? How many schools have two Rhodes Scholars and a Heisman Trophy winner? I never forgot the fact that I could not afford to go to Cranbrook without a scholarship,” he says, “and I was determined to help other kids have the same experiences.”

 

His volunteer role as a Class Agent for the Cranbrook class of 1955, encouraging his classmates to participate with him in The Cranbrook Schools Fund, brings unique enjoyment. He recounts a recent exchange with classmate Ian MacNiven ’55, who went on to a career as a literary biographer and emeritus professor of literature.

 

“It keeps me in touch with the class. Bill [Raisch ’55, Class Secretary] and I are great friends. And my classmates are cooperative, so I have kept it up,” he says. The class consistently ranks as the highest or one of the highest participating classes in The Cranbrook Schools Fund, with over half of the members making annual gifts that support today’s students and their Cranbrook experience.

 

What keeps him motivated and giving back?

 

“The spirit of the school has not changed. It’s my belief that the school continues to make available for kids – particularly kids of limited means – experiences like I had. Cranbrook is a place that really transforms you. After all, we come to Cranbrook as children, and we go through a transformation at Cranbrook in our most crucial years. I want other kids in my circumstances to enjoy the benefits of Cranbrook.”

 

And what would he say to students today?

 

“Understand that Cranbrook offers you the opportunity to realize your dreams. Realize not only in the sense of acquiring the skills you need to achieve the dream, but in defining the dream itself. It’s a period of time when you begin to realize who you are going to be. It’s a life-changing experience.”

 

Paul is a member of the Cranbrook Legacy Society, which recognizes those who have made plans for Cranbrook through an estate, trust, or other future gift. “It is an opportunity to make my final gesture of gratitude to the School for all that it has made possible,” he says. “I firmly believe that without my Cranbrook education, I would not have had the opportunities I have had as an adult.”