Andrew Lee March

March—Andrew Lee March, 85, of Lakewood, Colo., on July 15, 2018, from Alzheimer’s disease. Andy was born on October 14, 1932, in New Haven, Conn., and spent most of his youth in Swarthmore, Pa. He attended Kenyon College for one year before transferring to Swarthmore College, from which he graduated in 1953 with a bachelor’s in language and literature. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1953, teaching in Austria for one year. He and his first wife, Susan Marx, married in 1954. Serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve in 1955–1963, he received a master’s in geography from Syracuse University and a doctorate in geography and China studies from University of Washington. In 1968, he participated in the campus-wide protests against the Vietnam War. He and Kathryn Pendleton married in 1969. In his teaching career of more than four decades, he taught a wide range of topics, including geography, environmental science, and English as a second language at Ohio State University, Columbia University, Queens College, University of Denver, and Metropolitan State University of Denver. Later in his career he taught online courses and worked as a school bus driver for Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado, primarily serving special-needs children and adults.

He wrote The Idea of China: Myth and Theory in Geographic Thought, and he and Kathryn co-wrote Common Edible and Medicinal Plants of Colorado, The Quest for Wild Jelly, The Mushroom Basket, The Wild Plant Companion, and The Wild Taste. He also published many papers, poems, essays, and newspaper columns. Loving nature, language, literature, and ideas, he believed in nonviolence and simplicity of lifestyle and found spiritual comfort in nature, meditations, and the silent gatherings of Quaker meetings for worship. He was also interested in Buddhism and Chinese Taoism.

He joined Boulder (Colo.) Meeting in 1999 and served on the Ministry and Counsel and Ministry and Worship Committees. But his heart and dedication were to the Service Committee, where he served from 1998 until 2016, when his illness made continuing impossible. For many years he faithfully organized the meeting’s monthly dinner preparation at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, went to distribute sandwiches to the homeless around the library, and provided rides to meeting to Friends who lived in the south of Denver or Golden. Very quiet and striving everywhere for simplicity, he warmly greeted Friends with a smile and a hug when they approached him. Boulder Meeting misses him.

Andy is survived by his wife of 48 years, Kathryn Pendleton March; four children; and seven grandchildren.