Stuart Bumpas to Receive Callier Care Award at Annual Luncheon

Stuart Bumpas, a Dallas attorney and longtime trustee of the Foundation for the Callier Center and Communication Disorders, has been selected to receive the 2016 Ruth and Ken Altshuler Callier Care Award at the fifth annual Callier Cares Luncheon on April 19.

The award is presented annually to an individual or group that has contributed significantly to the betterment of the community and to advancing the care of patients with communication disorders. Proceeds from the luncheon benefit patients in need through the Callier Care Fund at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders.

Bumpas will join previous awardees including Mike McCullough, Sara Martineau, Geraldine “Tincy” Miller and the award’s namesakes, Ruth and Ken Altshuler.

“I’ve enjoyed watching Stuart’s life and career soar,” said Ruth Altshuler, who has known Bumpas since he was a boy, when his family lived next door. “He has not only been an extremely successful lawyer and family man, he has served on many community boards and is a first-class citizen. The ‘boy next door’ is now a distinguished man, husband to Diane, and one of Ken’s and my dearest friends.”

Bumpas became a trustee of the Foundation for the Callier Center in 1981, when Nelle Johnston asked him to serve on the board. Johnston, along with UT Dallas co-founder Erik Jonsson and Callier founding director Dr. Aram Glorig, formed the visionary committee that established the Callier Hearing and Speech Center in 1963.

Bumpas befriended Johnston at the Dallas Foundation, where he served as general counsel, and she served as director.

“Nelle was so dedicated and enthusiastic about Callier. It was infectious,” Bumpas said. “I was much taken with Callier. I was terribly impressed with all of the works that they did. I’ve been associated with Callier ever since.”

During the more than 30 years that Bumpas has served on the board, he has participated in many important projects that have contributed to the growth of the Callier Center. He remembers helping the foundation secure a grant from the Crystal Charity Ball, which served as a catalyst in funding the cochlear implant program in 1993.

He also engaged in the foundation’s efforts to collectively raise funds for various capital projects, including the Advanced Hearing Research Center in Dallas, the Callier Richardson facility, the Callier Autism Center in Dallas and the 50,000 square-foot Callier Center Expansion on the UT Dallas campus that is projected to open in the fall of 2016.

“When I first joined the foundation, I considered Callier to be one of the best-kept secrets in Dallas, but now it has come into its own,” Bumpas said. “Today, Callier has a national and international reputation.”

Bumpas credits his grandfather for inspiring him to serve the community. “My father died when I was a boy, and my grandfather stepped into the breach,” he said. “I was very close to my grandfather. He was a firm believer in giving back to the community, and I was inspired by his example.”

For the next generation of volunteers, Bumpas offers some words of advice: “Pick an organization you feel very positive about and do whatever they ask you to do. That is where the reward comes from — knowing that you have done some good.”

Bumpas is a partner at Locke Lord LLP, where he focuses on tax, employee benefits, nonprofit organizations and art law. He gives back to many organizations in the community, including serving as legal counsel for the Dallas Museum of Art, the President John F. Kennedy Commemorative Foundation and the Hockaday School. He also serves on the boards of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Meadows Museum, and chairs the Advisory Council of the Dallas Foundation.