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 1901 - 1987 (85 years)
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| Name |
Marston Stevens Balch |
| Born |
21 Nov 1901 |
Michigan, USA  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Census |
1930 |
Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA |
| Occupation |
1930 |
| college teacher |
| Died |
12 Feb 1987 |
Needham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, USA |
| Obituary |
16 Feb 1987 |
Boston Globe, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA |
- Marston Stevens Balch, a senior professor emeritus with the faculty of arts and sciences at Tufts University, died unexpectedly Friday in his Needham home. He was 85.
Mr. Balch joined the Tufts faculty in 1934 as assistant professor of English. The next year he also became director of drama and the executive director of the Tufts University Theater.
In addition, he was an adviser to Pen, Paint, and Pretzels -- one of America's oldest dramatic societies.
Before World War II, Mr. Balch persuaded Tufts to establish the first department of drama and speech in New England.
During World War II he served in North Africa and France as chief of the French press and radio analysis section of the US Information Service and later as chief of the cultural relations section under the State Department.
After the war he returned to Tufts as chairman of the department of drama and speech, a position he held for 26 years before retiring in 1966.
During that time, Mr. Balch -- or, Doc, as he was known to friends and collegues at Tufts -- directed and produced nearly 100 plays, many of which he translated into English and even more of which were US premieres.
Plans call for the construction of a new theater named in his honor at Tufts.
Mr. Balch also wrote dozens of scholarly articles and books and was very active in the National Theater Conference, the National Council of the Arts in Education, the New England Theater Conference, the American Theater Association, the French Center in New England, the French Library in Boston and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts.
Three times he was decorated by the French Government in appreciation of his services to French culture and literature.
He began his teaching career as an instructor at Williams College in 1925 and 1926. He also directed plays at Williams. After appointments at the Browne and Nichols School, the New England Conservatory of Music, Harvard University and Phillips Exeter Academy, he joined the Tufts faculty.
Mr. Balch was born in Detroit and graduated with high honors from Kalamazoo College in 1923. In 1925 he received his graduate degree from Harvard University and in 1931 received his PhD from Harvard.
He leaves a daughter, Gabrielle Suzanne Mazza of Lexington; three stepdaughters, Roberta Page Wurts of Osprey, Fla., Sally Hoagland of Wellesley and Joan Inches of Wellesley Hills, and two grandchildren.
A funeral Mass will be said Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 10:30 a.m. in the Church of the Advent, Boston. Burial will be private.
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| Person ID |
I10316 |
My Family Tree |
| Last Modified |
22 Nov 2007 |
| Father |
Ernest Alanson Balch, b. 23 Jun 1867, Oshtemo, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA |
| Mother |
Bertha Stevens, b. 29 Oct 1867, Texas, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA |
| Married |
02 Apr 1880 |
| Family ID |
F2751 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set