Charles W. Morris - Background

Background

A son of Charles William and Laura (Campbell) Morris, Charles William Morris was born on May 23, 1901. Having briefly attended the University of Wisconsin, Morris studied engineering and psychology at Northwestern University, where he graduated with a B.S. in 1922. Later that same year, he entered the University of Chicago where he became a doctoral student in philosophy under the direction of George Herbert Mead. Morris completed his dissertation on a symbolic theory of mind and received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1925. In the same year he married Gertrude E. Thompson, with whom he had a daughter, Sally Morris Petrilli. In 1951 he married his second wife, Ellen Ruth Allen (a psychologist). After his graduation, Morris turned to teaching, first at Rice University, and later at the University of Chicago. In 1958 he became Research Professor at the University of Florida. His students included semiotician Thomas A. Sebeok. In 1937 Morris presided over the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association, and was Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Charles William Morris died on January 15, 1979 in Gainesville, Florida.