Richard Morgan, who during his career served as AAP chairman and CEO of Harcourt Brace & Company, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill and Scott-Foresman, died March 9 at the age of 74.

After serving as a high school and college math teacher, Morgan began his publishing career in 1968 as an editor with Ginn and Company. He moved up the executive ranks in a period when the major educational publishing houses were undergoing tremendous change and consolidation. As chairman of the AAP, he initiated the organization's Reading Initiative for Children program, and he later received the AAP's highest honor, the Mary McNulty Award, for his contributions to educational publishing. He retired in 1995.

In remembering Morgan, his colleague and friend Jim Levy observed, "Dick will be remembered perhaps more than anything for his fierce loyalty and integrity. His dedication to his people and family was unwavering."