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ObituariesIn Remembrance: Richard L. Morcroft ’64, ’67LLB Died on January 7 2013Richard L. Morcroft died in a Boca Raton, Florida, hospice on January 7, 2013. He had most recently operated a translation service in Deerfield Beach, Florida. A tribute appears on the class website. |
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Mr. Morcroft was one of the finest teachers I ever had the pleasure to encounter, at any educational level, and I'm very sorry not to have had the opportunity to express my appreciation to him directly. When I met him in the late 1970's, he was teaching at St. Mark's School in Massachusetts, where he had been a Spanish instructor for some years. He also taught German- the courses I took- and brought to the classroom a remarkable intellectual curiosity, diligence and patience, of which he needed buckets to deal with our class. It's rare to find a teacher who so enjoys learning for the sake of learning, and is so deeply motivated to share the joy of learning with his or her students as he clearly was. Mr. Morcroft was a stickler for grammar and never overlooked an error, yet always tried to give credit for sincere effort. He always looked very serious, but had a distinct sense of fun and wry humor. One of my fondest memories is of a 3rd year midterm exam which he knew the whole class was dreading- to our surprise, he had worked hard to make the examination engaging and creative. Entirely in German, it included a complex crossword puzzle, and a question to be answered in poetry with classical rhyme and meter, among other delights. I asked him once how and why he had learned German. He said he had taught himself by reading newspapers, because he "thought it would be fun". I'm grateful to have known such a devoted linguist and teacher.