Richard L. Lawrence, 69, athlete and city school leader

Richard L. Lawrence Sr., 69, a former principal in the School District of Philadelphia, died of bladder cancer last Wednesday at the nursing facility of Bryn Mawr Terrace. He lived in Overbrook Hills.

A West Philadelphia native, Mr. Lawrence graduated from West Chester University in 1961 with a major in elementary education, and from Pennsylvania State University in 1971 with a master's in education.

At West Philadelphia High School, he ran cross-country and, during summers, received honors as a head lifeguard at city-operated pools.

After teaching at the former George Brooks Elementary School in the early 1960s, Mr. Lawrence went to what is now Muriel Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School, where in the 1960s and 1970s he became a teacher, cross-country coach and assistant principal.

Before retiring in 1991, his sister Frances Conway said, Mr. Lawrence was in charge of special education in School District Four and then principal of Huey School.

Mr. Lawrence and his wife, Renee, who died in 2004, then owned and operated Liquor World on Marlton Pike in Pennsauken.

He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, a college fraternity, Alpha Phi Beta, a high school fraternity, and a member of the vestry at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Overbrook.

Though diabetes blinded him in later years, his sister said, he easily guided friends along the roads of his vacation hometown of Hilton Head Island, S. C.

Besides his sister, Mr. Lawrence is survived by son Lawrence L. Jr., two grandsons, two nieces, four nephews, and a goddaughter.

A 9:30 a.m. tribute today - by his two fraternities and by the organization Old Philadelphians - will be in the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Overbrook and Lancaster Avenues, followed by a viewing from 10 to 10:45 a.m. and an 11 a.m. Mass there. Burial is to be in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd.

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