Beloved M-A teacher and coach Rick Longyear dies

“He was the quintessential teacher-coach,” said Paul Snow, M-A’s co-athletic director. “He worked many, many hours. And even when he retired as a coach he was still around the pool. … And he wasn’t just into aquatics. … He was just a big sports guru and he really understood the value of sports in kids lives.”

In February, Longyear was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer of the liver and esophagus. Throughout his treatment, he continued to teach at M-A, and insisted on finishing the school year.

“He tried to teach till the very, very end,” Snow said.

Born in Alaska, Longyear and his family moved to San Diego when he was in middle school. He went on to attend Villa Park High School where he discovered an affinity for water sports. He also played football and basketball but, due to his having asthma, swimming and water polo were a way for him to combat the pollution of the Southern California smog by getting exercise in a moist-air environment.

Longyear moved to the Bay Area in 1978 to attend Stanford, where he played water polo. He earned a bachelor’s degree in human biology.

While at Stanford, he met his wife of 33 years, Sally, who was a member of the Stanford women’s rowing crew, then a club sport. Longyear went on to earn his master’s degree in education with the Stanford Teacher Education Program in 1982, and was hired at Menlo-Atherton as a biology teacher and swim coach that same year.

Longyear helped many others find their paths as well.

The 2006 Daily Journal Girls’ Swimmer of the Year, Heidi Kucera, had planned not to swim when she arrived at M-A due to injury. Longyear, though, talked her into staying with the sport. She went on to earn the Central Coast Section championship in the girls’ 100-yard breaststroke.

“I was going to do badminton because I didn’t want to swim,” Kucera said in a 2006 interview with the Daily Journal. “But Rick talked me into it.”

Longyear inspired others in their career paths.

Chris Rubin was one of Longyear’s athletes from 1993-97. In 2002, Longyear asked Rubin to return to M-A as a coach. Rubin is both a coach and a teacher of computer technologies at the school.

“Rick got me into coaching,” Rubin said. “That was my first water polo coaching position at M-A, and Rick kind of coached me to do it. After a couple seasons … I told him I wasn’t going to be able to return and Rick kind of worked some magic to keep me onboard.”

Even through the 2017-18 school year, Longyear continued to affect students lives.

“He was amazingly patient,” said Steven Kryger, M-A co-athletic director. “He was amazingly kind and empathetic with the kids. He taught many different levels, a lot of it lately was a ninth-grade science class for some of our kids who struggled a little bit. And they identified with him. … He held them to a high standard but he made the material accessible to them. And I think that’s the mark of a good teacher.”

Richard Longyear is survived by his wife Sally and his son CJ.

He was inducted into the M-A Athletic Hall of Fame on July 12.

Plans for memorial services have yet to be announced.

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