This was one of the duties that Marius volunteered for when he arrived at Harvard in 1978 to rescue an Expository Writing program the administration believed lacked both standards and substance.

During his tenure as director, Marius attended each section at least once and always taught one or two of his own.

James R. Allison '99, who also took Marius's seminar on Twain and Faulkner, said he credits the development of his writing to Marius.

"He wouldn't just make check marks on a paper," Allison said. "There would be paragraphs written on both sides. I guess that's why he was the director."

Marius insisted that all students in his freshman seminar have lunch with him in the dining hall, according to Allison, and invited them over to his house for dinner, cooking them apple pie while they discussed their last novel.

"He liked to sit up in his little cubbyhole in Widener and shoot the breeze," said Andrew A. Green '98, who had Marius as a thesis advisor. "Our conversations usually had nothing to do with my thesis, but they were pleasant nonetheless."

As chair of the committee to select Commencement speakers, Marius would invite students to his house to practice their speeches.

"With the orators, he would give any amount of time to them," Thomas said. "He would be up at sunrise with them practicing in Tercentenary Theater in the weeks before Commencement."