Dr. Joe Louis Dudley, Sr., Founder of Dudley Products, Dies at Age 86

“I am, I can, and I will.”

With those words, humanitarian Dr. Joe Louis Dudley, Sr. built a successful haircare products business empire that has thrived for more than 50 years. He once said that his strong belief in Jesus Christ saw him through many challenges.

On Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, Dr. Dudley died peacefully at his home at age 86, leaving a wife and three adult children who are living out his legacy of excellence and achievement, and a company that is known around the world for its resilience in the annals of Black business history.

The family said in a statement. “Our hearts are broken. However, we smile knowing the thousands of lives that he touched and changed. Heaven has gained a dynamic humanitarian. We love you!”

An underdog himself, Dr. Dudley always believed in everyone’s potential for success, especially if you were willing to work hard, strive diligently and walk by faith.

On March 13, 2019, this reporter drove to Dr. Dudley’s mansion in Kernersville, NC, to interview him about his legacy. The assignment was for a proposed film—which unfortunately never got off the ground—but meeting this gracious and welcoming man of wisdom and knowledge, who was a legendary figure of true Black history, was an experience I will never forget.

The story of Joseph Louis Dudley Sr. is one of inspiration, especially for African Americans.

Born in Aurora, NC in 1937 in a three-bedroom farmhouse, the fifth of eleven children of Gilmer and Clara Dudley, young Joseph failed the first grade and was held back and labeled mentally retarded. He also suffered from a speech impediment.

“Nine of us slept in one room,” Dr. Dudley recalled in 2019. He remembered praying as a child, “Lord if you help me, I promise I will help other people.”

His mother, Clara, believed in him, pushing Joseph to overcome those obstacles by telling him, “Prove them wrong, Joe,” and helping him become a man who would remake himself into an extraordinary success story.

In 1957, at the age of 20, young Joe Dudley, still a student at NC A&T University in Greensboro, invested $10 to purchase a sales kit and begin selling black-owned Fuller Products door to door as a way to pay for his college classes. He eventually graduated from NC A&T with a degree in business administration.

Ten years later, beginning in 1967 and continuing through 2008, that door-to-door Fuller Products Distributorship by Joe Dudley would mushroom into the Dudley Haircare Products Company. He and his wife, Eunice, whom he had met in New York while selling door to door and married in 1961, moved to Greensboro, and they grew to be listed in the top 50 in Black Enterprise magazine’s Top 100 Black-Owned Businesses.

Dr. Dudley credited the mentorship of Fuller Products founder S.B. Fuller for “changing his life.” In his youth, Fuller faced many of the same struggles young Dudley had, including also being branded mentally retarded. Fuller became one of the richest Black men in America during his time.

“Mr. Fuller helped me to save time, “Dr. Dudley said. “That’s one of the great values of mentorship—pointing you in the right direction, and helping you become successful. It helps save time, save money, and save frustration.”

Dudley Products was started in the kitchen of the Dudley home and grew into the largest Black manufacturing plant between Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA. From its inception the company provided opportunities for the downtrodden, college students, and those needing an opportunity to prove themselves.

“It’s so exciting to help people, and watch them grow, and become successful,” Dudley said in 2019. “[African Americans] need to become job-makers.”

During this time, the Dudley Beauty School System was created, establishing schools across the country and the world, led by Dudley Cosmetology University in Kernersville, NC. The company has trained over 30,000 cosmologists around the world, something Dr. Dudley said he was most proud of, as well as expanded its cosmetics line and beauty salons.

Dr. Dudley became a millionaire by age 40. “Dudley” became a household name in the Black community along with Ebony and Johnson Products. He has also been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama, the Maya Angelou Tribute to Achievement Award, INC., Magazine’s North Carolina Master Entrepreneur Award, and many others. Soon he was taking pictures with world leaders like South African President Nelson Mandela.

The tremendous work of the Dudleys was noted in the 2009 Chris Rock documentary Good Hair, about the black haircare industry.

Dr. Dudley used his success to become a national and internationally renowned speaker. It was also during his heyday that Dr. Dudley saved nationally syndicated Black radio talk show host Tom Pope, who had gone bankrupt. Dudley helped save Pope’s business and help Tom stay on the air.

“Tom had the right spirit, the right heart. So we talked about it, and we [helped him],” Dr. Dudley recalls. In his autobiography, From Incognito Gangster to God: An American Story of Redemption and Restoration, Pope thanked the Dudleys for helping him when he was “bruised and broken.”

Dr. Dudley’s autobiography, Walking by Faith: I Am! I Can! & I Will!, details some of his principles for success: “Change your attitude to change your life”; “Accept challenge in faith”; “Don’t add loss to loss”; and “Make a difference in the world.”

“So many lives have changed, because I wrote that book,” Dr. Dudley said, noting how one man serving time in prison read his book and became a millionaire when he got out.

In June 2008, Dr. Dudley’s daughter, Ursula Dudley Oglesby, took over the day-to-day responsibilities of the business as president, and thus was born Dudley Beauty Corp, LLC. Today Dudley Beauty Corp., based in High Point, NC, sells 400 haircare and cosmetology products in the US and 18 countries.

“Loving GOD is loving people,” Dr. Dudley said.

Celebration of Life events for Dr. Joe L. Dudley, Sr. will be held February 18 & 19, 2024 in Greensboro, NC, and are open to the public. For details, please visit dudleyq.com/JOE-L-DUDLEY-SR-TRIBUTE.