Mary Price Dunn
Creator of The Legacy Workshop
As a distinguished leader in the nonprofit sector, Mary has pioneered programs to engage people – just as they are – in courageous and hopeful change. While serving as CEO of a charitable foundation, she developed a groundbreaking, grassroots initiative to help people build stronger, healthier communities in the rural towns and villages of New Mexico. It continues changing lives today.
Mary founded The Legacy Workshop on the belief that each of us longs to be seen and understood for all that we are and who we are becoming. We want to know that the value we’re creating in our lives will be meaningful, not only to those who love us but also those we’ve touched in small, everyday ways.This is our true legacy.
Mary presents Legacy Workshops and Retreats to small groups in corporate, nonprofit and healthcare settings, and by request. She also licenses and trains facilitators to present the Legacy Workshop in their own organizations.
Mary’s Personal Story
At the age of 68, my father discovered he had an aggressive cancer that had metastasized to his bones. The prognosis was poor. Feeling deeply vulnerable on a journey he had no way to map, he found care and consolation in a cancer support group. There, he was encouraged to think about what was most important to him, how he wanted to spend the time he had left, and the kind of end-of-life care he wanted. The group stressed the importance of having an up-to-date will or trust, healthcare directives, and a medical power of attorney.
What was even more impactful, the cancer patients were invited to complete a questionnaire about their values and beliefs, describing what had mattered most in their lives and how they wanted to be remembered. My father was inspired to write about aspects of his life he had never shared with anyone. But that was not enough. Talking with family about his values and wishes became supremely important. He found the courage to express what was in his heart, what life had meant to him and the memories he wanted to leave with us.
As a man who rarely spoke about feelings or painful experiences, this was my father’s Everest. He called the family together from far and wide. As we sat together around the living room table, my father shared what he had written about his personal legacy. He asked first and foremost that we remember him for all that he had tried to be and to give to his family, and forgive him for all the things he failed to say or do.
Of all my memories with my father, I remember most his words that day. His vulnerability in sharing his personal legacy was the greatest gift he could have given. A gift I have held close to my heart ever since.
The Legacy Workshop is beautifully inspired by my father’s story and the impact it had on me. The Legacy Workshops and Retreats offer you the opportunity to step away from the rush of life and find clarity and perspective. Through your own inner gaze and the eyes of like-hearted companions, you will begin to understand the life lessons that have made you stronger, wiser and truer. You will discover that legacy is not simply the material things you leave behind at the end of life … it is also the love, forgiveness, courage, lessons and presence you offer while you are here.