Recent Speaking Events
schools libraries 55+living communities
Students from The Harley School, Rochester, NY came to Cape Cod, MA in May for a retreat to learn more about caregiving in this innovative senior elective.
Unlike this class, death is not an elective. Although it is one of two universal human experiences, our culture often ignores, denies, or misconstrues the true nature of death and dying. What happens when we bear witness to this natural process in the cycle of life and develop our ability to be fully present with others when they need us more than ever? It has the potential to change us deeply and fundamentally while shining a brilliant light on the path of our own lives.
​Author Talk to high school students who have read Tuesdays with Morrie as part of their curriculum in English.
Thursday, June 5th (closed event)
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Recent Speaking Events
​'Memento Morrie' Author Talks on June 4 and June 10, 2025 (closed events)
plus
Moments of Meaning mini-exhibition of 8 photographs
from June 1- June 13 ​​ ​in the Pines Edge Lobby
Needham, MA
The Legacy of Morrie from Tuesdays with Morrie
2 new books from Heather Pillar and Rob Schwartz
April 9, 2025 Ashland Public Library and April 14, 2025 Needham Free Public Library
A profound collection of Morrie's previously unpublished writing on how to experience aging positively and creatively. Morrie's manuscript was edited by his son, Rob Schwartz (Blackstone 2023)
Memento Morrie contains 4 essays and 44 beautiful and touching photographs paired with Morrie's philosophies about what makes life worth living by photographer Heather Pillar (Daylight Books 2024)
Capturing Legacy:
Heather Pillar's Photographic Tribute to Morrie Schwartz
Interviewer Dave Roberts, MSW,LMSW, is an author and bereavement support specialist. He created The Teaching Journeys podcast with two of his former Utica University students about life skills and challenges.​
Watch on YouTube to see the photographs discussed:
Book Talk and Reception
Feb 1, 2025, Boston Public Library, Roslindale
&
The Centerpiece Flower Shop
Excerpt of December 2024 review by W.Scott Olsen:
If photographs are intimations of human emotion, then these images pack tremendous volume. It’s been 28 years since Tuesdays with Morrie, yet that book lingers in the cultural capital of this planet.
Disease notwithstanding, if it is possible to aspire to a type of death, here is our example. To bring this photobook out now is a wonderful reaffirmation of the lessons Morrie Schwartz taught us, seen through the eye of a talented and insightful photographer.
Woodruff's
Art Gallery
Mashpee, MA​
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​'Memento Morrie'
exhibition
October 10​-November 15, 2024
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Marblehead
Arts
Association
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​'Memento Morrie'
exhibition & Book Talk
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August 10-September 22, 2024
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Newsweek Japan article on 'Memento Morrie' (July 2024)
'Morrie's Massage'
awarded 1st Prize for Photography
Variations Exhibition 2024
Juror: Karen Haas Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Virtual Talk to Lily House, Wellfleet, MA
September 25, 2024
Community Home
for
Living & Dying
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Season 5/Episode 4: Heather Pillar | Camera as a passport (May 2023)
If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, then Heather Pillar (Pil-ár) has countless stories to tell over a 25-year career that has led the talented photojournalist across seven countries in four continents, highlighted by her moving portrait series, Memento Morrie: Images of Love and Loss, spotlighting the last six months of Brandeis professor Morrie Schwartz’s (of Tuesdays with Morrie fame) life.
Mini-exhibition events combined with Rob Schwartz book talks
Rob Schwartz and Heather Pillar at Provincetown Library, October 5, 2023.
The Angel Fund for ALS Research
Burlington, MA
September 29, 2023
With Rob Schwartz and book influencer Jean Stehle at Newton Free Library, May 2023
With Rob and Jean at Brookline Senior Center September 27, 2023
Exhibition of Heather Pillar's images - 2 honorable mentions
FotoNostrum, Barcelona, Spain
2oth annual
Julia Margaret Cameron Awards
April-May 2023
JMCA was juried by renowned photojournalist,
Barbara Davidson,
3x Pulitzer Prize and Guggenheim Fellow.
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Next Avenue
an AARP publication
April 14, 2023
Nearly 30 Years After His Death,
Morrie Schwartz Offers New Life Lessons
by Richard Harris
From the subject of 'Tuesdays with Morrie,' the discovery of a manuscript on aging creatively leads to a new book 'The Wisdom of Morrie'
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NBC's TODAY
with Hoda and Jenna
September 27, 2022
In honor of the 25th anniversary of “Tuesdays With Morrie,” author Mitch Albom opens up about how the book changed his own life, as well as the lives of millions of readers. “He’s on my shoulder everyday of my life,” Albom says about the advice he got from his beloved teacher.
Former broadcast journalist Ted Koppel interviews Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie. (approx 8 minute segment)
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Koppel asked, "It has crossed all kinds of cultural, ethnic, religious, racial boundaries. What are people getting out of it that they don't get out of most books?"
"Well, I've learned that the appeal of 'Tuesdays with Morrie' isn't my writing. I'm not Mark Twain! It's the story of a younger person who's a little lost and an older person who's about to leave the world who says: 'Let me tell you what I've learned.' Almost everybody can find themselves in one of those two characters.
CBS Sunday Morning
September 25, 2022
NPR All Things Considered
August 21,2022
As he faced death, Schwartz offered lessons in life.
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Among Schwartz' regrets during his conversations with Albom was how young people grasped onto what he called "the major cultural values, like money status and power ... and then you find out it's not a good life. It's too empty. There's no real substantial meaning but by that time it's too late."
Boston Globe
March 15, 2015
A PROFESSOR’S FINAL COURSE: HIS OWN DEATH
by Richard Harris
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The story of a retired Brandeis sociology professor, stricken with ALS — Lou Gehrig’s disease — who was given 12 to 18 months to live, was surprisingly upbeat. Rather than curling up in the fetal position, Morrie Schwartz irreverently held a memorial service for himself so he could hear friends tell him what he meant to them while he was still alive. Always the teacher, Morrie — that’s what he wanted to be called — decided to use whatever time he had left to conduct an ongoing class for friends and colleagues who’d stop by his Newton home — lessons on how to live as he stared death in the face.
Richard Harris, writer and former producer of Nightline
Richard Harris, former producer for the news program Nightline with Ted Koppel was a wonderful human and friend. I will miss Richard's gentle guidance. Richard wrote a wonderful essay, 'Giving is Living' for my book, Memento Morrie. '
Sending love to the Harris family.
Rest in peace, Richard.