Unbillable hours: An outpouring of support

Posted: 7:00 pm Sun, November 1, 2009
By Danny Jacobs
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

Mike Radcliffe wore a Ravens sweatshirt as he and Charlie Huebler, friends for more than 30 years, watched the Boys Latin junior varsity football team play last week. The Lakers were down by two touchdowns in the third quarter as Radcliffe’s 16-year-old son, Brett, attempted to quarterback a comeback. His middle son, 18-year-old Sean, joined them briefly before heading off for the varsity team’s practice.

Family, friends and football. Mike Radcliffe can’t move most of his body and struggles to pronounce words due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. But his eyes and mind remain sharp, which was why he leaned forward as Brett scrambled for a first down and smiled when Huebler teased him the way a best friend can.

It’s also why Radcliffe smiled when asked about the Baltimore County Bar Association’s fund-raiser Sunday to benefit The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. County lawyers, Radcliffe’s colleagues, will be guest-bartending while the Ravens play the Cincinnati Bengals.

“I’m very proud of them, very touched and very surprised by their support,” he said.

Support for Radcliffe, a longtime BCBA member, will not stop after Sunday, however. The organization’s executive council adopted the Packard Center as its charity of choice in September, meaning the center will receive proceeds from various BCBA events held throughout the year.

“There wasn’t any need to take a vote,” said C. William “Bud” Clark, the association’s president.

‘Team Radcliffe’

Radcliffe, 52, went to a doctor in January after experiencing muscle spasms. Doctors at Hopkins confirmed he had ALS, a neuromuscular disease for which there is no cure.

As many as 30,000 Americans have ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease; 5,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, according to the Packard Center. Just half of all ALS patients live three or more years after being diagnosed, according to the center.

Radcliffe, with Huebler occasionally helping to interpret words, said the diagnosis initially made him mad and upset. But he has since reached a level of acceptance.

“I love life,” he said. “You learn to live with limitations.”

Radcliffe also has become proactive in the fight against ALS. He had 130 people join “Team Radcliffe” for the Packard Center’s annual spring charity run. The bar association’s nascent running club, organized by the Young Lawyers’ Committee, also ran in Radcliffe’s name.

The committee’s members then decided to continue its support by donating proceeds from all its events this year, including its popular annual Bull Roast, to the Packard Center. And the committee recommended the entire BCBA support the Packard Center.

“Everybody in Young Lawyers was behind it,” said Christine S. Britton, the committee’s chairwoman. “It’s a great idea to do something that has touched one of our members.”

Stuart Radcliffe called his younger brother the family’s “de facto stabilizing force” after the death of their father, M. Stanley Radcliffe, who was also a lawyer. Mike Radcliffe joined his father’s Towson practice after passing the bar and was a general practitioner, his brother said.

For Stuart Radcliffe, the support from Mike Radcliffe’s friends reminds him of the end of “It’s A Wonderful Life.” For example, Radcliffe was active in the Lutherville-Timonium Recreation Council, including seven years as football commissioner. So his fellow coaches and managers held their own bull roast last week to raise money for the Packard Center and his medical bills. Three hundred eighty people came out to Pierce’s Plantation in northern Baltimore County; the venue can hold only 300, Stuart Radcliffe said.

“It floored him to think that that there are that many people he touched who want to do this on his behalf,” he said.

Mike Radcliffe tries to deflect any attention on him, preferring to keep the focus on raising funds for the Packard Center. At the bull roast, a friend said he had recently been diagnosed with ALS. Radcliffe immediately offered to help in any way he could.

“I learned to live with it, but I don’t want anyone else to go through it,” he said.

Rob Erdman was not surprised.

“He’s trying to help people as people are helping him,” said Erdman, a member of the Young Lawyers Committee.

Erdman and Radcliffe are part of a group that tailgates together before every Ravens home game. (They were profiled in The Daily Record last fall.) Radcliffe has been a Ravens season ticket holder since the team’s inception, and the team moved his seats to the first row of the upper deck this year to accommodate his wheelchair. Not surprisingly, then, the fund-raiser is being held during an away game.

Radcliffe’s prediction was: Ravens by 10.