Theodore Laurance Walch ("Ted")

1942 - 2022

Theodore Laurance Walch ("Ted") died a peaceful death at his home in Studio City, California on September 8, 2022, at the age of 80.
Walch, a passionate educator and director of performing arts at the Harvard-Westlake School, was a lifelong educator with a career spanning 55 years at three high schools; impacting thousands and thousands of students, many who went on to become teachers themselves.
After graduating from Kenyon College in 1963-where Walch's interest in becoming a theatre director was piqued by his own teacher, James Michael-Walch pursued graduate studies in drama at Yale (he was always quick to add that he dropped out) and Catholic University of America, graduating in spring of 1966. That same fall, he began teaching at the St. Albans School in Washington D.C., where he taught for 13 years.
Walch took a leave from teaching in 1979 to establish the Kenyon Festival Theatre at his alma mater, where he served as producing artistic director until 1985. The Kenyon Festival Theatre formed out of an earlier production celebrating the completion of the Bolton Theatre at Kenyon College in 1978 with a new play by playwright and friend Michael Cristofer, directed by Kenyon graduate Paul Newman, and featuring Walch's friend John Considine in the lead role. The professional repertory theatre operated for five summer seasons and gave many well-known actors formative experience and, as Walch often quipped, "their Actors' Equity (union) card."
The theatre produced classical and new work including work from Walch's friend and playwright Tad Mosel. Walch's own and sole play, The MoPac Rag, about life in a small Missouri town, was also produced by the theatre. While Walch demanded high quality productions, he maintained that the relationships that developed out of the Kenyon Festival Theatre were most important to him.
In 1984, Walch accepted an invitation to return to the classroom by his friend Tom Hudnut, who was then running The Branson School in Marin county, California. Walch simultaneously ran the Kenyon Festival Theatre while teaching at The Branson School during the 1984-85 academic year and it became clear to him that his calling and passion was in teaching and helping young adults "improvise their way through adolescence", which reflected Walch's own experience, and is the theme of his favorite film, The 400 Blows by François Truffaut.
In the early 90's, again at the invitation from Hudnut and lured by his abiding love of cinema, Walch moved to Los Angeles and became head of performing arts at the Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, where he taught for 30+ years and was preparing to return to the classroom for the fall 2022 semester when he became ill.
While a passionate theatre teacher and director at Harvard-Westlake, Walch expanded his teaching to include philosophy and cinema studies, a class he was handed "to let the course die a natural death". Instead, Walch reimagined the class, starting with his love for the French New Wave and The 400 Blows. The class became a staple and favorite of Harvard-Westlake students.
In his honor, the Ted Walch Scholar Endowment was created by Harvard-Westlake parents Marc and Julie Platt, whose five children had Walch as a teacher. The scholarship will provide financial aid to under-represented students interested in the performing or film arts.
Writing in memorial for Walch, current Harvard-Westlake school president Richard Commons said, "Ted had a gift for seeing his students-from theater kids to baseball players, from philosophers to mischief makers-for who they truly were, and it was his life's work and his life's joy to show them that he believed in them, however much they might be doubting themselves."
Doubting oneself during adolescence was especially understood by Walch, who grew up different in Sedalia, Missouri, losing both his mother and his older brother before he graduated from Sedalia Smith-Cotton High School.
Born in 1942 in Sedalia, the youngest of four sons of Harry Walch and Martha Inge Walch-granddaughter of A.D. Stanley, a founding owner of The Sedalia Democrat. His mother died of cancer in 1946, and his brother Charles Frederick ("Chuck") died in 1956 in a plane accident, both losses shaped Walch.
The loss of Chuck looms over Walch's memoir "What Are We Going to Do About the Kid?". In the memoir, Walch uses The 400 Blows as a vehicle to explore his love for teaching and movies, as well as his love of his own adolescence and home, despite the loss and difficulties. He was at work on the memoir at the time of his death, publication information will be released at a later date. Also in the memoir are letters from his mother written in her final days, which were cherished talismans on Walch's desk and a guiding star as he entered the last stages of his life "without fear and only love."
Walch is preceded in death by his oldest brothers William Stanley (2019) and Charles Fredrick (1956). Survivors include his brother Anthony Pitkin Walch of Cincinnati, OH, adoring nieces, nephews and cousins, as well as a bevy of current and former students.
Former student Jacob Soboroff reported on Walch's impact on some of Hollywood's biggest actors, as well as his own personal memories with the educator at Harvard- Westlake, and can be viewed in this profile on The Today Show:
https://www.today.com/video/los-angeles-high-school-alumni-gather-to-honor-beloved-teacher-147245125592
Memorials may be sent in honor of Ted to the Ted Walch Scholar Endowment (www.hw.com/give) or Saint Martin's Winnetka Church that nourished and cherished him (http://www.stmartinswinnetka.org/).
While living in Washington D.C., Walch married Mary McLaughlin of Sedalia. They divorced several years later but remained close friends until Walch's death. McLaughlin, whose family owned and managed McLaughlin Funeral Chapel in Sedalia since 1880 is handling arrangements. Walch's last wish was to be put to rest in Sedalia, beside his mother, his father, and his brother. His love for hometown and family were touchstones throughout his life and, in vintage Ted Walch storytelling form, Sedalia is where he wanted his gravestone placed.
Visitation will be 5-7pm Saturday, October 29, 2022, at McLaughlin Funeral Chapel, 519 South Ohio St., Sedalia, MO, 65301. Graveside service will be 1pm Sunday, October 30, 2022, at Crown Hill Cemetery 830 N. Engineer, Sedalia, MO, 65301, the Rev. Anne Meredith Kyle officiating.