Robert Wesley Morris

Robert Wesley Morris was born in November, 1942 in Clendenin, West Virginia to the late Wesley Orton Morris and Mahala Agnes Bostick. He grew up in West Virginia and Melbourne, Florida and graduated from Melbourne High School. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a Bachelor's degree in Biology and completed his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Oregon. While in Eugene he married the late Margaret Hull and they had two daughters there.

After post-doctoral research at the University of San Francisco and the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, he began a long teaching career at Widener University. He served for ten years as the Chair of the Biology Department, served as Chair of the Curriculum Revision Committee, led the development of a Biochemistry major at Widener and served on numerous faculty search and tenure committees. He was also Health Professions Advisor, judged local science fairs, ran Biology Days for high school students, and participated in a variety of campus efforts including International Students Week and Earth Day events.

In Philadelphia he was an active member of St. Mary's, Hamilton Village for several years including cooking for the Marygold dinner theatre. He worked summers as a cook at the Pinewoods dance camp, and for over 20 years spent a week each summer reading AP Biology exams in Kansas City.

In 1986, he married the late Katherine Terzi and they moved to Lansdowne, PA where they were active in many dance communities and briefly ran Stepping Out, a vintage clothing and dance instruction business. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Lansdowne Public Library and was a Tree Census volunteer.

In 2017, he retired after forty years of teaching, observing that he had hired nearly everyone still in the Biology department, and moved to Rochester, New York where he lived and worked with his beloved Pat in her clock repair shop and participated in the local dance community.

These facts are just one side of Bob. He loved to read and was insatiably curious about everything. He took classes at Widener just to expand his understanding of the world around him. He was engaged in politics, did yoga, loved to cook, and loved to dance and sing. He loved to read and was perpetually frustrated that writers kept writing faster than he could keep up with reading. At various times he played the bagpipes, the guitar, the sousaphone, the concertina, and the tin whistle. He had an endless supply of songs, from folk songs, to show tunes, to bawdy pub favorites and was a Morris dancer. He played bridge, he did word puzzles, and loved learning about practically anything.

He leaves behind his loving wife Patricia Hanley, his daughters Beth (Steve) Tanner and Rachel (James) Cramton, his brother Samuel (Leslie) and sister Rebecca, two grandchildren Zachary and Alex, two nephews Noah and Wesley, and many loving friends and relations. He was preceded in death by his parents, his former wives, and his son Alan Morris.

A celebration of life will be scheduled next year in Rochester.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Donors Choose, the Harvesters Community Food Network or the science or education organization of your choice.