Student, faculty member remember Marc Richards

Courtney Hook remembers the first day of Intro to American History Since 1865.  She sat in the front row, a row most students avoid, and was able to form a bond with a professor who would inspire her life and change her career goals.

“The first time I knew Marc and I would get along was after I took the first exam in his class,” Hook, a junior at Western Washington University said.

Feeling like she’d done well on the exam, Hook was surprised to see she’d only gotten an 80 percent.

“I marched up three stories to ask him why I missed points,” Hook said. “I'll never forget what happened next. He opened my blue book, scanned through my essays for about 10 seconds, looked at me and said, ‘Wow. I'll have to have a word with my graders. You don't deserve a grade this high.’ I was in shock. He laughed. He told me to calm down, he won't lower it. He spent the next half an hour going through each essay with me and explaining exactly what he was looking for.”

Marc Richards, a professor of History at Western Washington University, died April 9 after a brief battle with cancer.  He was 63 and had worked at Western for 15 years.

Kevin Leonard, chair of the History Department, first met Richards when Richards was finishing his bachelor’s degree at the University of California Davis.  Richards was a student in one of the first classes that Leonard was a teaching assistant for.

“I remember that he was a very good, committed student,” Leonard said.

Richards was often turning in drafts of papers to professors before they were due so they could be looked over and revised before the final drafts, Leonard said.

When Richards started working at Western in 1998, he taught a wide range of history courses, but as the department’s staffing needs changed he mainly taught History 103 and 104, both halves of United States History, Leonard said. Richards was able to inspire students and make them interested in the topic.

“Most of the students he taught were not history majors,” Leonard said. “But, I would run into people on campus who would tell me how great an experience they had in one or both of his classes.”

Leonard said that one of the mantras from students in Richards’ classes could have been “I really enjoyed it, but learned a lot, too.”

Hook credits Richards for making her the student she is today and for the path she wants to follow in life.“After taking his class, I knew there was nothing I'd rather be after I graduated,” she said. “I wanted to grow up and be Marc Richards.”

Hook said since history isn’t her forte, she’s decided to get a doctorate in Communication and become a professor after her schooling.

“He taught me that there's such thing as loving what you do,” she said. “He loved what he did every day.”

Leonard said one of the hardest things for him to get used to is not having Richards’ presence in the office and halls of the department. 

Leonard said that he would often see Richards working in his office early in the mornings, even during holidays, weekends and between quarters.

“For me, that’s one of those things that will take some adjustment is knowing that he’s not there anymore,” Leonard said.