TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Professor Ronald M. Weyand, who taught in Marymount College’s Theatre department for 40 years, died on July 17. He was 74 years old.
After graduating from Boston College in 1951 with a degree in English, Weyand attended Yale University School of Fine Arts, earning an M.F.A. in drama in 1953. He then performed with touring companies and summer stock, and appeared in the 1957 Broadway production of Inherit the Wind, before joining Marymount’s faculty in 1958.
While at Marymount, Weyand was often granted leaves of absence to act. In 1964, he received an Obie Award for his performance as the Professor in the Off-Broadway production of The Lesson. He also appeared in such films as Alice’s Restaurant (1969), Child’s Play (1972), Ragtime (1981), Lonesome Dove (1989) and Shadows and Fog (1992).
Ellen Casper Flood, Marymount associate professor of sociology, said Weyand was a “very caring teacher” who was “first and foremost an actor.” “He knew what it was like to be critiqued, and he was very sensitive to that with students,” she said. He also “paid close atten-tion to people,” a habit that led to his reputation as a faculty lunch-table mimic, where he would often entertain with “hilarious” imitations of colleagues. “It was a seamless way he existed in the world,” Casper Flood said.
Weyand is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, three children, a brother and three grandchildren.
