Necrology
Richard Merrill Price '54
Mar. 6, 1932-Aug. 8, 2021
Richard “Dick” Merrill Price ’54 died on Aug. 3, 2021, at RiverWoods Manchester, a retirement community in Manchester, N.H. Born in Newton, Mass., on March 6, 1932, he came to Hamilton from Beverly High School in 1950.
At Hamilton, he majored in economics and was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity and ROTC all four years he was on the Hill. Though he was a member of the football team his freshman year, hockey was his sport. As noted in his entry in The Hamiltonian: “Devoting four years to the task of bringing Hamilton hockey into Eastern prominence, he was rewarded with the captaincy his senior year.” At the end of his last season, Dick was awarded the Paulding F. Sellers Award by the Block “H” Club of which he had been a member since his first year on campus.
In the summer of 1953, following his junior year, Dick married Jean Stapledon Price from Beverly, Mass. In fact, they first met in the fifth grade shortly after Dick’s family had relocated to Beverly from Newton. During his senior year, they lived off-campus. Jean got a job in the College library and was crowned as queen of Winter Carnival.
Following graduation, Dick joined the Marines for a two-year tour of duty. At different times he was stationed in Korea, Okinawa, Japan (where he did some sailing on the side), and Florida. Discharged in 1956, he decided to follow the advice of his high school hockey coach and take a job as a teacher. He applied to two schools and accepted a position at the Columbus Academy in Gahanna, Ohio, a suburb of the state’s capital. He would retire from that institution in 1993 after 37 years of service.
At Columbus Academy, biology was his principal subject, but he engaged students in a variety of extracurricular activities. He coached several sports, including football, track, and tennis. He oversaw the Rocket Club as well as the Quilting Club where he taught boys how to quilt; their work was donated to children being treated for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). In the course of his career, he served as dean of the middle school and as athletic director. At his retirement, the school dedicated a new computer center to him.
When not at the school, Dick gardened, played tennis and squash, and sailed on the Hoover Reservoir near his home as well as off the East Coast. Thanks to his mother, he learned at an early age to knit and crochet and followed that with learning counted cross-stitch and weaving, the latter from a neighbor who had a weaving loom. He also taught himself to play the clarinet and saxophone and performed with members of his family.
For Dick, being out on the ice was central to his memories of Hamilton; his favorite rink was at West Point, then in the same hockey conference. His coaching at Columbus Academy reflected the value he placed on athletics in general and teamwork more specifically. Classmates remember him as energetic, upbeat, and well-liked.
Richard M. Price is survived by his wife of 67 years, three children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
