Dave Morice died at peace in a West Branch nursing home on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. I did not know him in his later years, although everyone knew him as Dr. Alphabet. While writing my autobiography, I wrote about time I spent with him and other members of the Actualist Poetry Movement. Some of us lived in a rental on Gilbert Court in Iowa City during my senior year at university, where:

The most important transformation may be coming to terms with the desire to be creative. After graduation I spent years considering what that meant. A group of poets and artists gathered at our house from time to time. Some are better known than others yet it was David Morice, Darrell Gray, Alan and Cinda Kornblum, Jim Mulac, and others who stopped by. I was enamored of Actualists, perhaps. In any case, I learned from them that a conventional approach to poetry, fiction writing and book making wasn’t necessary for success. I didn’t know any of them well, yet hanging with them in the living room helped me grow creatively.

I was taking art and art history classes to complete my degree in English. I dabbled in ceramics, tie dye, music, photography and other media. I realized there was no clear path to success as an artist, let alone the multi-media creator I vaguely wanted to become. I gave up a conventional career in the meat packing plant, in favor of a speculative future. It was unlike what I expected in high school and held a sketchy future at best. The desire to pursue this idea drove much of what I did throughout the rest of my life yet especially the following eight years.

I attended some of his poetry marathons, and endeavored to understand what he was doing. I don’t think I ever really understood it. He was an example of a unique, creative human following his path, regardless of outside pressures and influence. I could be that, or so I believed.

Like many others, I was left with his Dr. Alphabet hat as a reminder he dealt in images, words… and the alphabet. If I want to be like Dave Morice, I can’t. He was an American original.

His obituary can be read here.