Remembering Dr. Stephen Marcus, 1945-1999

Edited by Michael Day
(Originally published in the ACE Journal, Volume 2, Number 2,March 2000, pp. 35-47)

Members of ACE were shocked and saddened to learn of the death of our esteemed colleague and friend, Stephen Marcus, who was a long-time ACE Executive Board member.  A memorial web page has been set up at http://www.stager.org/stephenmarcus where all of us can read recollections of Stephen and add to them.

ACE held a tribute to Stephen at the 1999 NCTE annual convention in Denver.  An asterisk (*) next to a name indicates that the remarks were presented at the NCTE-ACE tribute in Denver.

However, we also felt that we wanted to share our recollections of Stephen in a tribute to him here in the ACE Journal, so we offer the following remembrances.

From Jeff Golub*

 A good friend and most respected NCTE colleague -- Dr. Stephen Marcus, University of California, Santa Barbara -- died last Friday from complications after surgery.  Don't know the details, but Stephen's fiancée left me a message on my answering machine today, informing me of this sad event. I had known Stephen for years, ever since I first heard him speak at an English conference.  He was just brilliant, speaking of things to come in the future of instructional technology that haven't even been invented yet.  He was a  true visionary, and his conference sessions and workshops were exciting and insightful.

I found two of his lines to be especially memorable:  "The odds of winning the lottery are about the same whether you buy a ticket or not."  And:  "Media Literacy is knowing where the truth lies."  [There's a pun lurking in that last line; don't miss it].

As one of the program chairs for the 1996 NCTE Spring conference in Boston, I invited Stephen to be a main speaker.  He was a good friend who was most supportive of me and my work, and we always found time to get together for lunch or dinner at the various conferences we attended.

The profession has lost one of its most gifted members.  And I have lost one of my best friends.

From Pam Childers*

I second everything that has been said about Stephen Marcus. I remember presenting at NCTE in Baltimore with Cindy Selfe and Stephen. Stephen went first, and Cindy and I were so fascinated with all that he was saying that we just kept deleting sections of our own presentations and let him continue as long as he wanted.  I also remember at the ACE Executive meeting when I gave the treasurer's report and he said, "Wow! We actually have money left over!  That's amazing."

Finally, many of the ACE people are not aware of the good work he has done with the National Writing Project by helping to set up coaches for the Well-Connected Educator online work. Many of the good deeds of Stephen Marcus have left their mark on our profession. Maybe we can collect famous quotes of his and projects that he has done to feature at the booth, too.

From Sheridan Blau

Please pass on the sad word to our catenet colleagues that our colleague and friend, Stephen Marcus, passed away Friday afternoon from complications following a heart operation. Stephen was co-director of the South Coast Writing Project at UC Santa Barbara and one of the nation's leading experts in the uses of technology for the teaching of writing and all the language arts. His presentations and workshops were legendary for their wit and visionary insights and his articles have been seminal for a generation of high tech English teachers. He was editor of the CUE journal and a member of many NCTE committees and task forces charged with reviewing and evaluating the uses of computers in English classes. His wit and wisdom and creativity and generous good nature will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues.

From Jim Strickland*

I was very saddened at the news of Stephen Marcus' death. I only met him recently through Jeff Golub, at one of those amazing NCTE "everybody goes out to dinner" events Jeff likes to put together, where you get about twenty people at the table.  Luckily for me, Stephen was down at my end of the table, and I got to see what a witty man he was. But I'd known the man's work for years and had been quoting him frequently since the early '80s (he figures largely in my '84 dissertation about computers and writing).

Stephen was a visionary who could explain complex ideas in ways that the rest of us could grasp.  I remember in the late 80s seeing him as a featured speaker at a CCCC explaining how hypertext hot buttons, stacks, and links worked.  Since computers were never available in the concurrent session rooms, Stephen was using a two-dimensional poster board to explain how links could be made to jump from a picture of a tomato to one of a pizza to a map of Italy -- not only did I understand, but he also managed to make me hungry.

At this meeting of the NCTE in Denver, I've felt Stephen's presence in the new "computers and English" developments, like Jim Burke's online course offered this Fall for Heinemann University, "Teaching in a Digital Age. "This is the sort of thing Stephen was envisioning ten years ago.  He would've been pleased to see it.  And that he's not here, makes me all the sadder.

I agree with Sheridan Blau: he was a brilliant mind and a witty man; he will be missed.

From Rebecca Rickly*

At Louisville NCTE, Eric Crump and I decided that we were going to infiltrate the powers that be and subvert the paradigm.  We went to our first ACE meeting, because we had decided that was where the power was in computers and writing.  It was a great image, because we sat way back on the periphery and everybody else was at a big table. We were marginalized physically, partially out of choice, and partially due to the hierarchical structure (executive directors vs. onlookers) of the organization.  But being graduate students who were involved with technology, we wanted to see what was happening.  Stephen Marcus said "You know, we need to get the people who are working in the field with technology on this committee!  We need to get the students and graduate students, in fact, look, over there are Eric Crump and Becky Rickly ? Let's get them on ACE!"  That's how I got involved with this committee: because Stephen had the insight to suggest that ACE needed to go get the people who are actually working with technology on the committee.

The other memory I have is much in line with what James Strickland said.  I had just been having a conversation with a colleague about how awful CCCC presentations were these days, since they seemed to be either all theory-driven boring drivel (face it:  it's extremely difficult to present a complex theory orally in 20 minutes and do a good job), or they were oral presentations that should have been read and NOT presented orally.   Then I went to Stephen Marcus' presentation about hypertext and he told us "I'm going to do a hypertextual presentation about hypertext.  Since hypertext allows the reader to find his or her own way through the text, I'm going to ask all of you are to decide what this presentation is going to be about." He had a nice board made up with a spinner and random topics all around it. He passed it around to the people attending and they got to decide what the topic would be by spinning it.  Whatever the topic was that they had chosen with the spinner, he spoke on it, and did so with eloquence and power.  It was the most wonderful, engaging, insightful presentation I have ever been to.

He will be sorely missed.

From Linda Shohet*

I’m speaking in a state of shock, because I only found out about an hour and a half ago.  I’ve been thinking for an hour and a half.

I met Stephen seven years ago at this conference.  I had just done a presentation and he was doing a presentation in the room right after me. He was coming in with all his equipment and I still had all my things set up.  Stephen walked up and started flipping through it and said "I don’t know you, but I can see from the stuff that’s out on the table that I should."  He started pulling out his materials, but I had to go to another presentation.  He said, "But if you come back after, we can go and have coffee," and so we did!

We stayed in touch and he came to Montreal several times. The first time he came, he gave a wonderful presentation.  He had sent the title ahead, and it was on responsible uses of technology for learning. But somebody in my office had typed the word "reprehensible" instead of "responsible!"  It was posted all over the college that he was doing this workshop on the reprehensible.  He said, "Oh, I could do that too!"

Since he had not been to Montreal, we asked him what he would like to do.  He said "Do you know what I like to do when I’m in as city where I have never been?  I’d like to visit a synagogue."  My husband loves to take people to a very beautiful synagogue in the city, and he took Stephen there the next day for the service.  They didn’t come back all day!  In fact, by three o’clock I got very worried since the service had ended at noon.  At four o’clock they came back; they had been all over the city and had done a Jewish tour of Montreal. They had become fast friends.

I bring speakers to Montreal all the time, every month, and there are a few people who become friends; Stephen was a person we felt had become our friend.  He has been back several times.  Since my husband likes to cook, Stephen sent him a beautiful Jewish cookbook.  So we have these beautiful things on our shelves to remember him by.

The last time I spoke to him was just around Passover.  We talked about the NCTE conference and a conference we’re doing on Media Literacy in the spring, and I asked him if he was coming.  He said "God willing."

I guess God wasn’t willing, and I am absolutely stricken.

We will carry wonderful memories of him with us forever.

We’ll miss him with you, Mary.

From Lynne Culp*

I couldn't attend Stephen Marcus's funeral, but I would have liked to.  I will miss his wonderful, friendly presence in my professional life.  If you didn't know him, I offer this reminiscence.

For the last six years or more I've been attending Computer Using Educator conferences -- always eagerly seeking out Stephen's presentations.  He always added just the right note of humor and skepticism to balance the almost blinding dazzle of what is shown at CUE. I can't always remember the whiz-bang presentations of software programs three months later, but  I never forget Stephen's videos, his cautionary tales, his emphasis on stories, and those pithy reminders like, "if it works; it's obsolete."

Every time I see a new Volkswagen Beetle or an ad for an I-Mac, I remember Stephen's description of them as "cuddleware."  Not merely entertaining, Stephen's presentations contained serious substance.   In the early days of Internet, he cobbled from nightly news reports a video of the dangers of the Internet.  Several pieces were about gullible teenagers who became victims.  That year, one of my students told me he had invited a 20 year old he met online in a chat room to stay in his house, telling his parents that he'd met the person competing in high school tennis matches. Remembering Stephen's presentation, I relayed some of it to my 11th grader for whom the possibility of danger at least seemed to dawn.

Once, right after I met Stephen the first time at CUE, I called him for some information about a software program for writing a Tech Plan.  He said, "Oh, I'm coming to LA right now.  Where do you live? I'll bring you the program. "  Within a few hours, he was having a cup of coffee in my kitchen, showing me what parts of the program might prove useful.  A couple of years later -- when I put together a technology study group of teachers -- Stephen hosted us for a day in Santa Barbara, sharing his videos, his insights about writing with computers, and even the goodies he had gleaned from making presentations all over the country and beyond.  I have a picture of that day with all of us wearing 3D glasses.  As always, Stephen humanized processes that come sometimes seem other-worldly.

When Stephen became editor of the CUE newsletter, many CUE members were delighted.  He was so perfect for the job.  The last few issues, published under his tenure, were informative, engaging,  and -best of all-fun to read.  This same feature was a hallmark of Stephen's hand-outs.   The last hand-out I received of his was a month ago when he keynoted the Teach The Teachers program at Thacher School.  It was titled "Do You Need a RUI for your GUI?"  Stephen himself was that "Reader User Interface" he often spoke of......a kindly, friendly intelligence helping to sort out the mystery.  I will miss him.

From Dawn Rodrigues*

It was 1984. My husband and I were driving to Albuquerque, NM to do a workshop on Computers for English Teachers at the New Mexico Council of Teachers of English conference.  To pass time, I started opening the mail that had just arrived before I left. One item--a complimentary copy of software called The Bank Street Writers Activity Files intrigued me. I looked through the teacher's manual and saw activities such as "Great Beginnings" and "Great Endings," files that students loaded into their Apple II computers and used as writing prompts. The idea was that students would get familiar with the word processor while working on imaginative, enjoyable writing. Brilliant! That's what I said to my husband, Ray, who I expected to read my mind. "I've got a hunch that this approach [using a word processor with activity file templates] is better than a lot of current software." The author of the software was Stephen Marcus, who I had not heard of at the time.

Several weeks later, I wrote  an enthusiastic  review of the Bank Street Writer Activity files for English Journal, and shortly after that, I got a call from Stephen, who thanked me for understanding what he was doing and recognizing that it was useful.  We began exchanging ideas about technology then, and kept doing so until he died. Stephen was always two steps ahead of most of us, but he willingly shared and gratefully to our more pedestrian (practical and pragmatic, he said) approaches to computers and composition.

About three months before Stephen died he sent invited me to join his Negatrends project. Busy with family emergencies of my own, I didn't write back right away. A few days before he died I did a "to-do" list. At the top of the list was a message to myself: "Get in touch with Stephen."

I was too late.

But it's never too late to pay tribute. Stephen, I'll never forget your work and the way it has influenced my own ways of approaching technology. And I'll always value having had the chance to get to know you and work with you.

From Lisa Gerrard*

For those who may not have known Stephen, he was one of the "pioneers"/"early adopters," doing computers and writing when there was scarcely any software for this purpose. In the early '80's, he invented "invisible writing," which allowed students to freewrite a la Elbow by turning down the monitor on their terminals (this was before desktop computers), so they couldn't see what they were typing. He had a droll wit, too, and a great sense of humor.

I didn't realize until he died, that not only is Computers and Writing a young field, but its practitioners have also been pretty young--I think that made Stephen's death even more unexpected.

From Ted Nellen*

I was shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden and untimely death of Stephen Marcus.  It was both a professional and personal loss for me. Stephen was an important, generous, and lovable figure in our profession of education.  He will be sorely missed by all of us.

I had the pleasure of meeting Stephen at the Boston NCTE conference when I was honored to share a stage with him in an all day pre-conference workshop.  It happened to be the same conference where NCTE honored him and his work. I had several close encounters with him during the conference, at a sushi bar, at a table discussing the pros and cons of Internet use in our classrooms, and at his own moments of honor presented by his colleagues.  It was an enriching conference for me just to have spent so much quality time with this man.  Our professional relational continued as he served to assist Gwen Soloman and her writing cohort for The Well- Connected Educator.  He had assembled writing coaches and editors to help her in the large task of fine tuning the many wonderful selections in this newly developing resource for teachers using the Internet.  He assisted me on three such articles.  Finally, I was looking forward to continuing to work with Stephen as we were both members of the executive committee of NCTE's ACE, the Assembly on Computers in English.

So it is also personal loss to me, because he added clarity, vision, and counterpoint to much of what I did.  He was a sane and an intelligent voice who helped me understand better how to implement the Internet in my work.  He stressed caution with an intelligent reason.  He guided me to clarity of vision and pedagogy with every question he asked as I forged ahead.  Stephen was a gentle man, an intelligent man, a great educator, and a remarkable friend, though short it was.  I cried when I heard that he had died.

RIP Stephen.

From Gwen Solomon

Stephen was very special to me, as I know he was to many others. In fact, I don't know of anyone else who reached so many people. He was an academic, teaching, and writing and influencing others. And he was a leader of both English teachers and technology using educators. In all, he was an inspiration.

I first met him in 1988 and I'll never forget that experience. I had been in awe of his brilliance before that (from his early work in creating CompuPoem). As it happened, we both were beta-testing software for Scholastic. We met at a dinner and decided to work together to test the latest version of what was later issued as Story Tree by George Brackett. It was great fun and we became friends. I learned a lot in the process.

Over the years, we worked on other things together too - mostly for Scholastic. His Process Writer software (for elementary school students to improve writing) and my Success with Writing (for secondary students) were based on the same design. And when I wrote articles for Electronic Learning, I often turned to Stephen for information - because he always had the best answers and because I enjoyed talking to him.

When I had the idea for The Well Connected Educator - to publish teachers who write about their use of technology in their classrooms - he helped me figure out the writing coach component that was so essential. And then he coordinated it. And spoke about it at conferences. His praise let me know I was on the right path. And that praise meant a lot.

I see that this note doesn't really do Stephen's memory justice. He was so smart and funny and wise and kind. And I miss him. I looked forward every year to our small dinner in Palm Springs at the Spring CUE conference. He loved Santa Fe pizza at California Pizza Kitchen, so that's where we went and that's what he ate. And we'll all miss that special time with him — and all our special times with such a special person

From Michael Day*

The following is based on my remarks at the tribute to Stephen held at the NCTE Convention in Denver.

Stephen couldn’t always make it to the NCTE Convention, but he was always there in the background, helping and urging ACE on to do its work at the convention.  I’ve known Stephen for about nine years; I first met him at a Computers and Writing conference in the World Trade Center in New York City where he was presenting with Mark Ferrer on new ways to use HyperCard for student writing projects.  He was one of the first people involved in computers and writing I ever met, and I consider him my mentor.

Stephen had fantastic ideas for projects including HyperShelf (written up as "What Are HyperCard?" in The Writing Notebook), America’s Smartest Home Videos and the Negatrends Delphi Project, of which I was a part. We presented together first at EDUCOM 91 and then many times thereafter, but I was most impressed by the way Stephen could captivate audiences with nothing more than an overhead projector and his witty, authoritative style.  He had some great expressions, some of which others in this tribute have mentioned, but one of my favorites was when he moved from explaining hardware, software, and vaporware to a discussion of "neural wetware" ­ the human brain!

As an illustration of Stephen’s kindness and charm, let me share a birthday greeting he sent me on my 40th birthday:

Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 09:38:27 -0700
From: Stephen Marcus <smarcus@education.ucsb.edu>
To: mday@silver.sdsmt.edu
Subject: HaPpy BiRtHdAy To YoU!

Michael,

The word on the Web is that it's your birthday today. From Alta Vista to Yahoo, search fields are straining in their efforts to contain all the relevant keywords that will provide people with the relevant resources and warbling websites in a widespread attempt to wend their way to you with welcome and warm wishes.

Like this one.

Traci did the spammin'. You get the jammin'. (Greatly appreciated, and richly deserved, I might add.)

//Stephen

In a way, it was fitting to hold the tribute to Stephen in Denver, for it was in Denver at DIA and at Stapleton Airport before it that our paths kept crossing, just by coincidence, and we found ourselves with unexpected extra time to catch up with each other between flights.

Or maybe it was no coincidence.

Stephen you will be sorely missed.

From Mary Howell*

I appreciate the tribute to Stephen at NCTE and in the ACE Journal. I know he is missed so much. I can't begin to express my sense of loss, and his friends everywhere are suffering a big loss as well. Thank you to Michael for all the arrangements and to everyone who participated. I'd be pleased if colleagues would like to correspond to share memories of or communications with Stephen. I'm currently using the email address we were sharing, smarcus@thegrid.net. Drop me a line any time.

Here's a personal glimpse, however inadequate, of Stephen, taken from remarks I made at the memorial we held in September at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Stephen was brilliant and funny and pioneering, and he was also very loving and creatively romantic. We knew what we had was special. When we weren't together we spoke on the phone every day-sometimes three or four times. Stephen could scarcely pass a pay phone without stopping to call me, and used to page me in airports just to hear the announcement. Sometimes he went on quests for me-he'd search endlessly to find something, if he thought I'd enjoy it. In Edinburgh in July he walked the length of the Royal Mile looking for an album by a Scottish folk group we'd discovered there once. He found it, of course, and we listened to it during our last car trip to Ojai.

We shared a love of language and joked about installing the twenty-volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary in the car for trips we took together. Stephen shared his new ideas with me and we loved editing each other. What a fine grasp of the English language he had.

In his professional work, Stephen would cull an idea from anywhere -- seemingly from the ether  -- and carry it around in his head until an article, keynote address, workshop or an entire educational project emerged fully formed. He could splice together the most disparate elements into ingenious and valuable material-always with humor and an underlying spirit of generosity. He was engaging and funny as a speaker, and strong on content. His work was real, full of thought, and endlessly inspiring. He loved making "the strange familiar, and the familiar strange," and one of his favorite prompts was "What? So what? Now what?"

Stephen was amazing in large and small ways. He sometimes mystified people because he never wore a watch, but was always on time. He took pleasure in simple things. If objects had utility or grace or a sense of fun he found real value in them.

He was a private person who cherished his family and friends quietly. Did you know he was the drummer for a band that once opened for Martha and the Vandellas? (He occasionally drummed his beautiful hands on the edge of a table, and sometimes, lovingly, on my head.) That he had a certificate as a massage therapist, and a brown belt in karate? He was one of the first subscribers to MacWorld and was still getting Rolling Stone magazine. He loved ketchup on nearly anything and was an eclectic and creative cook.

He would insert secret references to me in his work. My birthday was the due date for his Smartest and Wisest Home Videos contest. He included quotes in his articles and workshops attributed to Henry Mellon Owle: a homonym for my name, Mary Ellen Howell. Our favorite quote by Henry Mellon Owle was one he paired with a quotation about imagination from Albert Einstein. Stephen responded with "Cogito eggo sum: I think, therefore I am a waffle."

An Endowment Fund in honor of Stephen has been established at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Donations can be sent to the Stephen Marcus Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 3952, San Luis Obispo, CA  93403.