Dr. Lawrence M. Rudner's Obituary
Dr. Lawrence Michael Rudner (Larry) of St. Michaels, MD, died on January 22, 2025 after a complicated illness and treatment at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. His family was at his side. He was 74. Born in New York, he moved at an early age to Connecticut, growing up in New Milford in the Litchfield Hills area and enjoying all the freedom and beauty of the natural setting, also becoming an accomplished tennis player. During this era, which just preceded the initial computer age, he became fascinated with HAM radio and obtained his first license using Morse code at only age 12. With this early love of electronics he never looked back, and launched into the late '60s along with the new age of computers, building circuit boards and wiring his own electronics, eventually his own interactive computer with modems....he dabbled in satellite transmission too, during his years of residence and raising his family in Chevy Chase, MD. Later, when he moved to St. Michaels, he built a satellite tower receiver that could track and reach various circling transmissions. He also perfected his digital HAM skills and worked countries around the world in regular contests. His self-designed QSL cards depicted the Thomas Point light and skipjacks on the water. It was as if he was always meant to be on the Eastern Shore.
He and his wife Pam met when they were both university faculty in the DC area, and, before starting a family, chose to enlarge their early daysailing experiences, purchasing a larger cruising sailboat which they used nearly non-stop in summers on the Bay, exploring creeks and maintaining the ease of an academic calendar which allowed months of non-contracted freedom. Their favorite cruising areas, once they left their Western shore marina, were here in the rivers and shores of Talbot County.... they made a promise to one day move permanently to enjoy their next phase of life where an early taste had begun. Indeed, a promise was fulfilled.
But until then, Larry worked diligently as an extraordinary expert statistician with psychometric (testing) expertise and became a leading expert in several applications and author of a technique used worldwide by testing companies and researchers. He was an early adopter of large language models used for essay scoring and obtained a patent on one of his applications. His lectures were sought by several large testing companies, and he garnered a career achievement award by the Association of Test Publishers which offers, among others, the GMAT, LSAT ,MCAT and many proprietary achievement and aptitude tests. He branched into AI before most people had even heard of the new computer science field. For many years, he was the executive director of the ERIC clearinghouses; project officer for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NIE); founder and editor of the highly successful scholarly journal Practical Assessment Research and Evaluation; and later, Vice President for Research and Psychometrics for the Graduate Management Admission Council, publishers of the GMAT exam. He also held an MBA in Finance. Other positions included those at American Institutes for Research (AIR-DC), faculty positions at The Catholic University of America, DC and University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author or co-author of over 150 scholarly peer-reviewed publications and has served on various boards and advisory committees.
His love of marine science and aquaculture reached a zenith once he lived on the Eastern shore. In prior years he had raised angel fish, maintained a huge tank of Amazonian discus fish and piranha, and developed an indigenous fish tank for creatures of the Bay waters. But finally, his real love of oysters became his focus. He studied the methods of New Zealand and Australian growers, adapting their Flip Farm surface-growing systems to raise his own oysters from cages he built along his dock, then finally obtained aquaculture leases and grew his hobby of gardening into a successful full business of farming. He modified systems, researched growth parameters, published industry growth models and designed and built his own sorting devices, next inventing a cage flipping system which obviated the need for any staff to assist in hauling or flipping the oyster cages in summer growing months. In winning grant awards for the work, he was able to have commercial versions built and was awarded a full US utility patent in the Fall of 2024 for his flipping system that he hoped would also one day serve small farmers in our area as well as it did him. His aquaculture endeavor was named OysterGirl Oysters, and he and his wife provided all operational aspects. In addition, he offered classes in oyster gardening at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) to rave reviews, as students departed with not only knowledge, but their own self-constructed cages and oysters to grow on their waterfrontage.
There was no one Larry did not help, from lecturing on AI and cyber warfare at the Chesapeake Forum, to helping aquaculture groups, teaching at CBMM, growing his large gardens in summer and trouble- shooting all manner of computer software and hardware issues for friends far and wide. He succumbed unexpectedly to complications of his medical care. He is survived by his grieving wife of 46 years Dr. Pamela Getson, his sons Leland Rudner (Claire), Andrew Rudner (Emily) and grandson Jackson Donald, among other extended family. He loved the shore, his family, his life. He touched many with his unique brilliance in so many fields, delivered with tenacity of purpose, but always with full humility and easy manner.
He is now at peace.
Private arrangements at this time. In lieu of other acknowledgments, contributions may be made in his name to an essential aspect of Johns Hopkins' hospitalized patient support: Hackerman-Patz Patient and Family Pavilion, 301 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21231
For more information please contact: Michelle Steely, CHP 410-955-5707 [email protected]
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