Robert Thatcher Morse—1905–1964

Dr. Robert Thatcher Morse died of a heart attack while at work on February 18, 1964. He was fifty-eight years old. He had suffered previous cardiac episodes, but following each he had resumed a full and active life. This determination and this refusal to give in to adversity were characteristic of him.

His valvular heart defect followed a severe attack of influenza during the 1918 epidemic. Despite this he became an expert gymnast, boxer, ice skater, and sailing enthusiast. He traveled and taught indefatigably for the armed forces and for various governmental agencies. One of his major disappointments was his rejection for active military service during the war.

He was born on October 7, 1905 in Rochester, New York, the first of two children of Frank Leslie and Agnes Ryan Morse. From the age of seven to thirteen he lived in Iowa, Chicago then becoming his family home. He attended high school there. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1928 as a psychology major. He completed his premedical requirements at Northwestern University and graduated from medical school there in 1933. After a brief period at Holy Cross Hospital he interned for eighteen months at Cook County Hospital, continuing on another year as a resident in therapeutics.

During the years 1930-1937 his interest in psychiatry was stimulated by his attendance at Lionel Blitzsten's psychoanalytic seminars. He was deeply impressed by Blitzsten's intuition and brilliance. The friendships he formed with members of this group, Knight, Orr, Bacon, Crowley, Tidd, and Halpern, remained with him for the rest of his life.

While waiting for his psychiatric residency he spent six months as a lieutenant in the AUS serving as a medical officer for CCC camps in the mountains of Montana. Following this he became house physician at the Palmer House in Chicago until in 1937 he began his formal training in psychiatry at the Menninger Clinic.

His year at the Menninger Clinic brought with it further importa