Dudley Randall

Born in Washington, DC, the son of a minister and a teacher, Randall wrote his first poem when he was four years old, moved to Detroit when he was nine, and saw his poems first published in the Detroit Free Press when he was 13. A bright student, Randall graduated early. After working in Ford’s River Rouge foundry for five years and serving in the South Pacific during World War II, he earned a BA in English from Wayne University (now Wayne State University) and a MA in library science from the University of Michigan. Randall, who became the reference librarian for Wayne County, was fluent in Russian; visited Europe, Africa, and Russia; and later translated many Russian poems into English. Randall died in 2000. The Dudley Randall Poetry Prize is awarded to a University of Detroit Mercy student each year. Source