Sesame Street creator and Sesame Workshop co-founder Lloyd Morrisett dead at 93

Lloyd Morrisett – who co-founded Sesame Workshop and founded Sesame Street – has passed away aged 93 on Monday.

The Sesame Workshop Instagram account revealed the sad news on Tuesday but did not reveal a cause of death.

It was posted with a statement which read: ‘Sesame Workshop mourns the passing of our esteemed and beloved co-founder Lloyd N. Morrisett, PhD, who died at the age of 93.

Icon: Lloyd Morrisett – who co-founded Sesame Workshop and founded Sesame Street – has passed away aged 93

‘A Lifetime Honorary Trustee, Lloyd leaves an outsized and indelible legacy among generations of children the world over, with Sesame Street only the most visible tribute to a lifetime of good work and lasting impact. 

‘A wise, thoughtful, and above all kind leader of the Workshop for decades, Lloyd was fascinated by the power of technology and constantly thinking about new ways it could be used to educate.’

 He along with Joan Ganz Cooney founded the Sesame Workshop in May 1968 as the statement ended with a quote from his 93-year-old former business partner.

It was posted with a statement which began: ‘Sesame Workshop mourns the passing of our esteemed and beloved co-founder Lloyd N. Morrisett, PhD, who died at the age of 93’

It concluded:  ‘Joan Ganz Cooney, his co-founder and close friend, put it best. “Without Lloyd Morrisett, there would be no Sesame Street. It was he who first came up with the notion of using television to teach preschoolers basic skills, such as letters and numbers. He was a trusted partner and loyal friend to me for over fifty years, and he will be sorely missed.”‘

Sesame Workshop – then called Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) – created legendary television show Sesame Street which began airing in November 1969.

The idea for the series began in December 1965 as  Morrisett noticed how engaged his three-year-old daughter was to the family television set which got him contemplating if it could be used to educate children.

Dynamic duo: He along with Joan Ganz Cooney founded the Sesame Workshop in May 1968, as the two are seen left to right alongside US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Kennedy Honors in Washington DC back in December 2019

He apparently talked to Cooney about it at a dinner party a few months later and the rest is history. 

 Morrisett was chairman of Sesame Workshop from 1970 to 2020 and remained on the board of trustees from 1970 until his death.

He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as the son  of Jessie Watson and Lloyd Newton Morrisett.

The family moved to New York City in 1933 to escape hardships as a result of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

They later moved to California where Morrisett met Julian Ganz who would later introduce him to Joan Ganz Cooney. 

Morrisett also received his B.A. at Oberlin college and later did graduate work in Psychology at University of California at Los Angeles and earned his PH.D. in  Experimental Psychology at Yale University.

Altogether now: Front row from left, Susan Pompeo, 2019 Kennedy Center Honorees Michael Tilson Thomas, Linda Ronstadt, Sally Field, Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett and Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter, back row from left, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 2019 Kennedy Center Honorees Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, characters from “Sesame Street,” Abby Cadabby, Big Bird, and Elmo, Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein, Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss at the Kennedy Honors in December 2019