Forty years in a classroom changes a lot of lives. For Columbus Academy alumnus Ted Coons ’94, Kevin Morrin had a lasting impact on his.
Ted and his wife, Liz Yee, have made a foundational gift to establish the Kevin Morrin Chair for Inspired Teaching, honoring the English teacher and coach who played a critical role in shaping how Ted thinks about learning — and who spent forty years doing the same for generations of Academy students including Ted’s father, uncles and sister.
Kevin Morrin, known to nearly everyone as “KC,” taught English at Columbus Academy from 1965 until his retirement in 2005. His classes ranged widely in subject matter, and his lessons were celebrated for their imagination and originality. He received Columbus Academy’s Alumni Service Award in 1998.
Ted took Mr. Morrin’s British Literature class in 11th grade and senior English elective. The experiences stayed with him. “Decades later, I can still recite the opening lines of Chaucer. And the way he taught the English Romantics — Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner in particular — brought the texts to life. Great teachers make the complex not just clear, but vivid — and KC painted in technicolor.”
Beyond the classroom, Coach Morrin built Columbus Academy’s boys soccer program from the ground up, establishing what became the first high school soccer program in Central Ohio during the 1965-66 school year. He was an assistant coach when the Vikings won the state title in 1995 and was named Ohio’s Assistant Soccer Coach of the Year in 1997.
Ted, president and co-founder of OceanSound Partners, said, “Our hope is that this gift honors Kevin’s legacy, helps Columbus Academy continue to attract life-changing educators like KC — and inspires others who benefitted from Academy to join Liz and me in giving back.”
To learn more about the Morrin Chair or to make a gift in support of it, please contact Assistant Head of School for Development Maria Miller at millerm@columbusacademy.org.