Richard M. Scrushy - Early Life and Background

Early Life and Background

Richard M. Scrushy was born in August 1952 in Selma, Alabama. The son of a middle class family, Scrushy's father, Gerald Scrushy, worked as a cash register repairman and his mother, Grace Scrushy, worked as a nurse and respiratory therapist. At an early age, Scrushy taught himself to play the piano and guitar and was earning money doing odd jobs by the time he was 12 years old. Scrushy, who then went by his middle name Marin, attended school until he was 17. He dropped out prior to graduating from Parrish High School and married.

Scrushy soon found himself living in a Selma trailer park and working manual labor jobs to support his family. After a run-in with a boss, Scrushy quit his job hauling cement and decided to return to school. He earned his GED, and at his mother's advice, began studying respiratory therapy at Wallace State Community College. After a year at Wallace State, Scrushy transferred to Jefferson State Community College and later entered the respiratory therapy program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Upon graduating from UAB's program, Scrushy was offered a position teaching at the university, where he was promoted to director during his two and a half year tenure. Scrushy divorced his wife, with whom he had two children, and took a position teaching at Wallace State Community College in Dothan, Alabama. While teaching at Wallace State, Scrushy met and married his second wife, Karen Brooks. The two had four children before they divorced in 1996. In early June 1997, Scrushy married Leslie Anne Jones in Jamaica, with guests such as Martha Stewart attending. The group met at the HealthSouth Hangar at the Birmingham International Airport and boarded a chartered Boeing 727 to Jamaica. Together Richard and Leslie have had three children.