Over five decades, Randy McCutcheon has been a master teacher and coach whose extraordinary insight, dedication, and worldly wisdom has changed the lives of thousands of students.
Renowned for coaching more National Champions in Extemporaneous Speaking than anyone — spanning from Austan Goolsbee in 1987 to Kyle Letterer in 2023 — Randy speaks just as proudly of the crowded beginners’ labs he deliberately sought out at summer institutes, where he helped novices overcome their fears of speaking without notes.
Now, at age 74, Randy needs help from the Speech & Debate community he’s served tirelessly for almost 50 years. Randy was recently diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a rare and challenging neurological disorder that will eventually strip him of his mobility and leave him bedridden. You can read more about this awful illness here:
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/multiple-system-atrophy
To make matters worse, just before Thanksgiving Randy suffered a serious infection and fall that sent him to UNM Hospital. Although he has since defeated the infection, he continues to recover from rhabdomyolysis that ensued as a complication from the fall.
Randy’s close friends, the Durso Family, have with exceptional generosity agreed to help care for Randy at an excellent facility they’ve identified near their home in Couer D’Alene, Idaho (Legends Assisted Living). When Randy is out of the hospital and ready, the Durso Family will also help move him from Albuquerque to the that facility.
But even with the Durso Family’s generous help “on the ground,” Randy needs help to cover his medical expenses at UNM Hospital as well as the assisted care expenses he will incur at the facility where he’ll move.
We are aiming to raise $300,000, which will cover three years of care at Legends and leave ~$50,000 for Randy’s UNM medical expenses as well as future medical expenses he will likely incur.
Peter Durso, who is an ER physician with a strong financial background and knows Randy well, has kindly agreed to serve as the trustee for disbursement of these funds.
If Randy touched your life or if you are simply part of the broader Speech & Debate community and wish to help “pay it forward” on behalf of a living legend who has given this community so much for so long, we hope you’ll give as generously as you can. Thank you!