M. Zacher, religion teacher

Morris Zacher, 71, of Bryn Mawr, a former lawyer, businessman, and religion teacher, died Wednesday, Sept. 22, of pancreatic cancer at Penn Hospice at Rittenhouse.

Mr. Zacher graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1955 and from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Law School.

During a summer of law school, his wife, Linda, said, he studied on a Ford Foundation fellowship at the Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands.

As part of his military duty, his wife said, he was the manager of an apartment building at Army Garrison Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Mr. Zacher joined the Philadelphia law firm of Astor Weiss in the 1960s, then became a partner in the firm of Koss & Zacher.

In the 1970s and 1980s, his wife said, he was a principal in Eastern Music Systems Corp., a vending-machine firm at 11th and Buttonwood Streets.

"In his late 50s, he changed careers," his wife said. He earned master's degrees in religious studies at Gratz College and at Temple University.

"Why Jewish studies?" his wife said. "People have told me that at one point, Morrie would have become a rabbi" when he was younger.

"He was always involved with the synagogue life. It was a natural extension for him."

Off and on for the last 10 years, she said, he was an adjunct teacher of religion at Arcadia, Rowan, and Temple Universities.

Mr. Zacher was president of Congregation Emanu-El in Oak Lane in 1970-71, later was a board member of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, and was in the final year of a three-year term on the board of directors at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood.

In the early 1970s, his wife said, Mr. Zacher smuggled prayer books and such on a visit to Jews in the Soviet Union.

In 1983, he was chairman of the Philadelphia chapter of Israel Bonds. He was also on the local boards of the American Jewish Congress, United Synagogue of America, and the Zionist Organization of America.

Besides his wife of 42 years, he is survived by daughters Samantha and Rebecca Zacher and a brother, Jules.

A funeral service was set for 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, 1001 Remington Rd., Wynnewood. Burial is to be at Roosevelt Memorial Park, Trevose.