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Rick Longyear, a longtime teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School and, for decades, a coach and official in competitive water sports at M-A and on the Peninsula, was of the strong opinion that sports and other extracurricular activities present students with opportunities for important life lessons, a fellow coach said in remembering him.
Longyear, who was recently inducted into the M-A Athletic Hall of Fame, died July 17 after a “short battle with cancer,” M-A principal Simone Rick-Kennel said in a midsummer newsletter. He was 57.
“We will miss Rick,” Rick-Kennel wrote in an email. “A big loss for our M-A community.”
His wife Sally Longyear said in a recent Facebook post that she’ll be running the Relay for Life in Burgess Park in Menlo Park on Saturday, Aug. 11, and asks for contributions in her husband’s memory. Go to main.acsevents.org/goto/Sally to make a contribution.
Longyear is survived by his wife and his son CJ. Longyear was officially inducted into the M-A Hall of Fame on July 12, but will be honored posthumously at the 10th annual M-A Hall of Fame banquet on Saturday, Oct. 13.
Coaching was a passion for Longyear, M-A Athletic Director Paul Snow wrote in an email. “He was never NOT involved in coaching in his entire 36 years at M-A,” he said.
Longyear taught biology for 36 years, mostly 10th-graders seeking a lab-science credit for the University of California system, fellow science teacher Lance Powell wrote in an email. Longyear’s blended-biology course served students of all academic levels and challenged them to opt for more rigorous coursework and earn an “advanced” designation on their transcripts in the process.
“Rick loved teaching, and loved teaching Biology especially,” Patrick Roisen, an advanced-placement biology teacher at M-A, wrote in an email. Longyear helped pilot labs for a biotechnology group that now provides equipment and logistical support for DNA engineering and testing in classrooms around the Bay Area, Roisen said.
A field of study that came to be known as “sewer science” in Bay Area and Southern California schools, ranging from ecology to microbiology, is also a result of Longyear’s initiative, Roisen said.
“His enthusiasm for learning new concepts and ideas was infectious,” he said. “As a colleague, Rick was a consummate team player in the Science Department, doing anything and everything asked of him, and was the person I could always depend on for a helping hand.”
“He was dedicated to his students, staying in at lunch to help them get caught up and even sometimes swinging through my classroom to check in on former students and see how they were doing,” Roisen said. “As a teacher and a person, Rick epitomized one of his favorite words – ‘Outstanding!'”
A native of Alaska, Longyear moved to Southern California while in middle school and graduated from Villa Park High School in Orange County.
Longyear had a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University as well as a master’s degree in education. He also played water polo for the school.
He joined the M-A faculty in 1982 and coached the girls water polo team until about 2006. He then volunteered as an assistant coach and ran all the school’s home swim meets, Snow said.
As the head of sports for the Peninsula Athletic League, he ran all the preseason and postseason meetings with swimming coaches, and directed the league’s swimming championship meets for more than 30 years, Snow said.
By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce
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I’ve had three daughters do M-A aquatics (swimming and diving; water polo) and Rick was knowledgable and very dedicated to supporting student athletes. Very sad news, I was sitting just a few feet away when he ran the PAL Championship meet this Spring. He will be missed!
Rick was one of my daughter’s favorite teachers at M-A, as well as the assistant coach for the swim team during her time at the school. Very positive and easy going, he challenged and encouraged kids to work hard, both in and out of the classroom. Rick was one of those teachers who will be remembered by both the students and their parents, and his passing is a great loss to the community.
One of my favorite coaches from that era.
We loved and appreciated Rick Longyear!!! He was not only our oldest daughter’s freshman biology teacher but also her water polo coach and swim coach. He expected a lot of his students and taught them to hold the line. He held them accountable, which was good because he cared about them. He kept all of the reams of paper of best times of past student’s times over the years. One time I inquired regarding one of our children’s times and he recalled exactly, without the blink of an eye, that which I had asked. I was literally astonished at how Rick had the earnest interest in remembering students times and achievements. Another time when our Freshman daughter had to miss school due to sickness, yet could not miss tryouts for soccer, Rick happened to see her after school and he recalled that she had missed class that morning, so he asked why she was on campus that afternoon. I appreciated Rick’s thoughtfulness, care and his great memory. Indeed, Rick was a huge part in the kind of formation of students which helps build character for a lifetime