Departments
Obituary
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Week of 16 October 1998 |
Vol. II, No. 10 |
Obituary
Ralph Lamont Mosher, professor emeritus at the BU School of Education, died on October 9 of Parkinson's disease. He was 70.
Mosher served as assistant and then associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education until 1972, when he accepted the chairmanship of the department of counseling education at BU. His career as a professor of human development and counseling psychology spanned five decades and resulted in 14 books and over 40 publications, several of which have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, and Russian. His academic legacy as an educator, researcher, and supervisor of graduate students is embodied in the careers of the great numbers of psychologists, teachers, counselors, and administrators whom he taught and mentored.
Edwin Delattre, dean of SED, comments that Mosher's "profound service in, and contribution to, SED have helped to make the School what it is today. We know of our indebtedness to him for all he has done to elevate the goals of education and educational opportunity -- not only here, but wherever his writings and his influence have touched."
Mosher and his colleagues wrote what was widely considered to be the defining process of counseling students and supervising counselors and teachers. His academic contributions include research in counseling and developmental psychology, teacher and counselor effectiveness, curriculum development and reformulation in the areas of psychological and moral education, student and teacher attitudes toward school and learning, adolescent moral development, and the creation of democratic secondary schools and the study of their effect on students' development.
As an undergraduate, Mosher studied in Europe and played with a semiprofessional German soccer team. An abiding interest in ornithology led him to devote his summers during college to the Canadian Wildlife Service; he spent one summer living with a native family in Labrador studying the migratory and nesting patterns of waterfowl.
Mosher is survived by his wife, Jessica Mosher of Newton, three daughters, and one brother.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, October 16, at noon at Marsh Chapel. Instead of flowers, contributions may be made to the Ralph Lamont Mosher Memorial Scholarship Fund, payable to Trustees of Boston University (memo: Ralph Mosher Scholarship Fund), attention Rachel O'Boyle, Development Office, School of Education, Boston University, 605 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215.