Richard Blanchard

Richard O. ("Doc") Blanchard (December 20, 1920 - March 29, 1994) was a popular high school English teacher in Concord, New Hampshire. In 1985 he was named teacher of the year in New Hampshire. [ [http://www.nhgoldapple.org/PastRecipients.asp?award=1 Past Recipients] ] [ [http://www.ccsso.org/projects/National_Teacher_of_the_Year/State_Teachers/1985/ 1985 State Teachers of the Year] ] Blanchard did not have a doctoral degree, but got the name from his habit of always wearing a bowtie and conducting his classes more like college classes than high school classes. He taught English to the smart sophomores and the dumb seniors. He also regularly volunteered at the NH State Prison, teaching English. He liked to say that "his vocation was his avocation, and that his avocation was his vocation". David Souter, one of his former students, nominated him for a teaching award from Harvard conferred on secondary school teachers. [Yarbrough, Tinsley E. 2005 "David Hackett Souter: Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court" ISBN 0195159330 pg. 7]

Blanchard graduated from Concord High School himself in 1938 and from Oberlin College in 1943. He taught at CHS for 36 years. After retiring in 1987, he served as a volunteer to the Courier Gallery of Art and the New Hampshire Historical Society. [Concord Monitor March 30, 1994 pg. B2]

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