Devoted Teacher, Marius Dies of Cancer at 66

Richard C. Marius, the former director of Harvard's Expository Writing program, a Reformation scholar and an acclaimed novelist, died at his home in Belmont on Friday from pancreatic cancer. He was 66.

Marius became Harvard's director of Expository Writing in 1978 and served until 1993, when he resigned to devote more time to teaching and his own writing.

Faculty and students remember Marius as a devoted teacher and "Southern gentleman," who loved writing. He retired from Harvard last year after becoming sick in order to finish his fourth novel, which is scheduled for publication next year.

His other novels, The Coming of the Rain (1969), Bound for the Promised Land (1976) and After the War (1992), portray individuals interacting with major historical events between 1850 and 1950. They are all set in Marius's native Tennessee.

"He never really got that time to write that he planned for," said Marius's wife, Lanier Smythe. "As an academic he would have done the academic work no matter what. No one required him to do the creative work. That's what he did because he loved it."

As an undergraduate at the University of Tennessee, Marius wrote a weekly column with sketches of many of the characters who later appeared in his novels.

He received a B.S. in journalism in 1954, then a B.D. from the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in 1958. Marius then traveled to Strasbourg, France as a Rotary Fellow.

Marius' love of France drew him there for summer bike trips for the rest of his life.

"It was a time to be outdoors and active in a country of great beauty, wonderful food and people of great warmth and friendliness who appreciate someone speaking French to them," Smythe said. "We were bicycling the back roads following Michelin maps that showed the small byways."

Andrew L. Zwick '00, who took Marius's freshman seminar on Mark Twain and William Faulkner, said Marius's summers in France figured in the stories he often told in class.

"His experiences were always so charming--you know, this Southern gentleman meeting these Europeans and them being as fascinated with him as he was with them," Zwick said.

After returning from France, Marius served as a pastor and studied the Reformation at Yale University, earning his Ph.D. in 1962.

Marius taught for two years at Gettysburg College, then took a professorship at the University of Tennessee.

He joined in the activist currents of his time, speaking out against the Vietnam War and protesting segregation.

"He was proud that he was one of the few on that campus that pushed for civil rights when it wasn't something we took for granted," said Professor of Greek and Latin Richard F. Thomas, who worked with Marius to coach students selected to speak at Commencement.

This was one of the duties that Marius volunteered for when he arrived at Harvard in 1978 to rescue an Expository Writing program the administration believed lacked both standards and substance.

During his tenure as director, Marius attended each section at least once and always taught one or two of his own.

James R. Allison '99, who also took Marius's seminar on Twain and Faulkner, said he credits the development of his writing to Marius.

"He wouldn't just make check marks on a paper," Allison said. "There would be paragraphs written on both sides. I guess that's why he was the director."

Marius insisted that all students in his freshman seminar have lunch with him in the dining hall, according to Allison, and invited them over to his house for dinner, cooking them apple pie while they discussed their last novel.

"He liked to sit up in his little cubbyhole in Widener and shoot the breeze," said Andrew A. Green '98, who had Marius as a thesis advisor. "Our conversations usually had nothing to do with my thesis, but they were pleasant nonetheless."

As chair of the committee to select Commencement speakers, Marius would invite students to his house to practice their speeches.

"With the orators, he would give any amount of time to them," Thomas said. "He would be up at sunrise with them practicing in Tercentenary Theater in the weeks before Commencement."

Thomas said Marius--the author of biographies on Thomas More and Martin Luther, and a trained Southern preacher--had a background that made him a skilled orator.

"Harvard was not by any means an obvious place for him to end up," said Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68. "He was able to view and comment on the Harvard scene with a tremendous amount of insight and good humor."

But Marius made Boston his home, becoming an ardent Red Sox fan. Lewis said he attended a baseball game with Marius every year, and was treated to stories of minor and major league baseball games that Marius had seen "40 or 50 years ago" in Tennessee.

To Zwick, Marius represented the quintessential Harvard professor.

"I remember I took a photograph of him with one of my freshman year roommates," Zwick said. "I remember thinking that's what a Harvard professor ought to be--the bowtie and the really effusive personality."

Marius is survived by his wife and three sons, Richard H. Marius, of Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Frederick S. Marius, of Winchester, Mass.; and John B. Marius, of New York City. He also has two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held for Marius in Memorial Church sometime during the next few months.