Block, Morris I. (6/21/1986)

From our 30th reunion memorial service
Morris Block came to us from Phillips Exeter and majored in Russian. He founded the Dartmouth Chamber Players and managed the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra and Vermont Symphony. Morris died in a boating accident in 1986.

From the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, August 1986

St. Paul’s Cathedral in Burlington, Vt., was filled when people came from every part of the state to celebrate the life of MORRIS IRA BLOCK, and to mourn his death in a boating accident on June 21, 1986. That appalling event cut short not only a brilliant career—but also a life of really exceptional beauty and grace.

No one who knew his work at Dartmouth could have been surprised at his success: the energy and resourcefulness he brought to managing the DSO, his leadership in the founding of the Dartmouth Chamber Players, the affection and esteem in which he was held by all who knew him well, his unique status as the only person ever to win two Marcus Heiman Awards for Achievement in the Arts - all made one aware of his potential.

He came to Dartmouth from Phillips Exeter to major in Russian, with the intention of becoming a pediatrician. He left - after graduating cum laude in three years - as an experienced arts administrator who immediately found employment as the manager of the Sea Cliff Chamber Players on Long Island; three years later he was appointed manager of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. There his dynamic leadership, with Maestro Efrain Guigui, completely revitalized the Orchestra. Morris had accepted, just days before his death, a new appointment as the founding director of the Vermont Community Foundation.

His death is indeed a tragedy: I had long since realized that he had accomplished too much to make sense of my old hope that he would one day become the director of the Hopkins Center, but now the hope that succeeded it - that he would be appointed, in a decade or so, president of this College he loved so well - has died as well.

PETER SMITH

In memory of Morris Block, the Class of 1979 has purchased the following book for Baker Library:

Guiney, A., The English Country Town