Welcome and Thank You Speech by Roger D. Larson

The following speech was delivered on October 14, 2011 by Roger D. Larson, Executive Director, during the welcome reception held in his honor at the Tuerk House.

Dr. Isodore Tuerk was a pioneer in the fields of mental health and substance abuse. He was on the vanguard of change in behavioral services and a true inspiration to professionals and consumers, together. I first learned of Isadore Tuerk about 12 years ago, through the annual Tuerk Conference. I was curious about the name, so checked the name out on Google. (Yes, I was one of the first few thousands of people who were using Google). I was tremendously impressed with the conference, with the quality presentations presented by quality professionals. Later, I was to discover that Isadore Tuerk’s name was attached to a treatment program in Baltimore City and that it is considered one of the best substance abuse treatment providers in the state…it seemed natural to name a program after Isadore Tuerk.

Most of you probably have known the name of Isadore Tuerk for more than 12 years. I am not originally from the Baltimore area. In fact, I discovered that Dr. Tuerk was born in Baltimore and lived his whole life in Baltimore. I was born in a small town in northeast Iowa and grew up on a dairy farm near another small town in northeast Iowa. My professional career has taken me to Minnesota, South Dakota, back to Minnesota, back to Iowa, to Maryland, Delaware and back to Maryland. I have had many opportunities to learn various state laws, practices and systems over the course of the last 40 years.

I moved to Maryland in 1986, which means of course I am not a Marylander. I still have roots in Iowa, and I still root for the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Chicago Cubs, but my home is now in Maryland and my work home is in Baltimore…and that feels good to me.

As I was reflecting about what I would say today, I realized how my life has changed and how different it has been from life in Baltimore. My father was not a well-educated man, but he passed along many life lessons to me. He believed that college taught a person to be a teacher, a preacher or a “reacher” and that you were a farmer otherwise. So when I came home from college after my sophomore year and told my parents I was going to major in psychology and sociology, he asked, “What’s that good for?” I told him I wanted to learn about people and why they do the things they do as well as to help people. My father responded with, “I don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a college to learn that. You’ll never amount to anything.” Oh, about the “reacher” thing, it’s pretty obvious what a teacher and a preacher are, but you may not know what a “reacher” is. A “reacher” is a store owner – the people who reach in your pocket to take your money. Today, if my father could look down on this earth, I think he would be proud that I did do okay, even though I am not a teacher, a preacher or a reacher.

I have only been at the Tuerk House for a few weeks. Staff have been so welcoming, consumers have been kind and dedicated to their recovery, and our outside supporters have been receptive to my being here. I have made many connections – connections with the Tuerk House. On my first day here, I believe I had been here for maybe 10 seconds, and Latif introduced himself, and shared with me how Tuerk House had changed his life and that although he graduated from our program he comes back to volunteer pretty much every day. You know you are in the right place when something like that happens.

My professional experiences and opportunities have been available to me, in part, due to people like Isadore Tuerk. Times and treatment approaches have come a long way from then; what hasn’t changed is the passion that people have for this place, for the people who enter these doors, for the employees who dedicate their lives to helping others overcome the terrible effects of alcohol and substance abuse addiction. I commit myself to this company and doing what I think is right, not just for current times but for what Dr. Tuerk would have expected from me, to challenge the old ways of doing things, to take calculated risks, to move the field of addiction recovery to new and better levels.

Today, the Tuerk House is in an enviable position. Approximately two years ago the board of directors and many staff merged their thoughts and ideas with people from other organizations to submit a grant request to SAMHSA, to implement a project called Recovery Oriented Systems of Care, commonly called ROSC, an evidenced based practice to treat the entire person in his/her recovery. No doubt hundreds of programs around the country applied for a ROSC grant, to put them on the cutting edge of treatment, but were unsuccessful. I should know, I represented one of them until a few weeks ago. Tuerk House was fortunate enough, with our brother/sister companies, to be awarded a ROSC grant. Our task now is to implement these wraparound services with the people who are referred to this program. However, our larger task is to implement these services company-wide, to demonstrate these services are what people really need, to maintain their sobriety and live rich and wholesome lives. The challenge is before us and we proudly accept the opportunity.

Now for a few shameless plugs – On November 5th our Annual 5K Run/Walk is being held at Druid Hill Park. Please join us that Saturday morning for a brisk walk or run and help support the programs offered by Tuerk House.

Secondly, on November 10th, Tuerk House and MICA are co-sponsoring a lecture on the Arts & Addiction. We have post cards announcing this event and would encourage as many of you as possible to join us that evening for a most entertaining and educational event.

And lastly, a group of our men have been learning and experiencing art under the guidance of Andi Curran (from MICA) and Herb Massey, (from Baltimore Clayworks). In fact, some of our men’s work is currently on display at the Baltimore Clayworks, in a show entitled “Social Justice” that runs until November 12, 2011.

I look forward to working with all of you in whatever capacity our relationship takes us. But, in any event, the great tradition inspired by Isadore Tuerk will lead us.

Thank you all for coming today. It means a great deal to me. Thank you to all the staff and board members who worked so tirelessly to make this event possible. I appreciate this day more than I can adequately express in words.