CARLISLE - Richard Matthew ("Dick") Shohet of Mill Iron Farm, Bedford Rd., passed away peacefully in the company of close family on January 29 after a period of failing health.

Born on October 20, 1936, and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, Dick identified himself as a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, cattle farmer, English teacher, and prison volunteer. Profoundly devoted to lifelong learning, he demanded intellectual rigor not only of the thousands of students he taught over his forty-year career but also of his family members, and had patience neither for careless word usage nor for poor table manners.

Dick spent his childhood playing pond hockey in the winter and baseball the rest of the year, a sport he later coached as a young teacher. Educated at the Brookline public schools and The Darrow School, he graduated from Brown University and earned a doctoral degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

On Patriots Day of 1961, the quest for a perfect vantage point from which to watch the Boston Marathon led him to the fourth-floor Back Bay apartment of Carolyn Stein. The two married in her hometown of Aspen, Colorado, a year later. While interviewing for teaching positions in Concord, Dick was told rather disdainfully that a young teacher would never be able to afford a home in Concord and he should look for housing in the backwater outpost of Carlisle instead. He and Carolyn rented a tiny farmhouse on Acton Street for a year, then moved briefly to Boulder, Colorado. In 1964, they returned to Carlisle, and a few years later, as their family grew to include their three daughters, they moved into one of the town's first Deck houses, on Judy Farm Road.

Dick taught at the Concord Middle Schools from 1964 to 1967 and then for seven years at Concord Academy, where several of his students became close friends of the family. In 1974 he opted to shift his professional focus to public school education, first in the Groton-Dunstable school system, then at Newton South High School, and finally in Lexington, where he spent the last twenty years of his career until retirement in 1999.

His interest in farming and agriculture began with his first visit to his wife's family's ranch in Colorado, and in 1983 he and Carolyn acquired the former grazing lands of Bates Farm, on which they built a home and began raising a small herd of cattle, an avocation he maintained for the four decades that followed. Passers-by on Bedford Road frequently spotted him mowing the fields or repairing fences. Initially he and Carolyn offered the organic beef to friends and neighbors, but in later years they opted instead to donate it to the Open Table food pantry in Maynard.

Among Dick's most rewarding work was his time as a prison volunteer. He led literature discussion groups and developed fundamental bonds of respect and collegiality with his participants, often remarking that the main difference between teaching inmates and teaching suburban high schoolers was that the inmates never complained that they didn't have enough time to do the reading. He took joy in his wife, children, and grandchildren, though he always said it was their character, and never their achievements, that brought him happiness. He maintained long-time friendships and established new ones, with a keen interest in meeting members of younger generations. His niece, Beth Landau, recently wrote, "Dick was a complicated man, but he and Carolyn made a huge impression on me – offering a way of being and living that has created a deep love and respect. Difficult perhaps, but he was a model of integrity and love and intelligence to me."

Dick cherished the meadows and woods of Mill Iron Farm, the lakes of Maine, and the Colorado mountains.

He will be missed by his family, including his wife, Carolyn; his children, Lauren Shohet and Robert Richardson of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Nancy and Rick West of Carlisle, and Sarah Shohet and John Mikhail of Chevy Chase, Maryland; and his grandchildren, Sophie and Phoebe Richardson and Sophie's husband Marc Williamson, Tim and Holly West, and Hannah and Andrew Mikhail.

Relatives and friends will gather for a celebration of life on Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 2:00 pm at First Religious Society, 27 School Street, Carlisle.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.