Morris David Morris was a professor of economics at the University of Washington from 1949 to 1981 and was a driving force behind the growth of South Asian Studies in the United States.
Morris was born on February 10, 1921 in San Francisco, California, remaining there for his childhood. He was educated in public schools and worked for his father’s business, providing uniforms for streetcar workers. He attended the University of California at Berkley starting in 1937, majoring in Economics. Following his graduation in 1941 he worked in a shipyard for a brief time, then in 1942 he took a job with government services as a Junior Economist at the War Production Board in Washington D.C. Eventually he joined the U.S. Army Air Force and served during WWII. In 1946 Morris went back to UC Berkley to obtain his graduate degree. In 1949 he joined the economics faculty at the University of Washington. During his time at UW his research shifted from labor union in California to labor forces in India. Through the Fulbright program he visited India from 1951-1952. Morris wrote numerous essays during his career, in particular on the history of the Indian economy and problems of economic development, and had a great influence on the creation of South Asian Studies programs. His work led him to develop the Physical Quality of Life Index as a measurement of economic health.
He retired from the University of Washington in 1981, after which he took on the appointment of the Henry R. Luce Professor of Sociology and Comparative Study of Development at Brown University. Morris was also active in national initiatives for the development of the study of South Asia in the United States, such as the American Institute of Asian Studies and H-ASIA. Morris also worked with the World Hunger Program at Brown University. He remained a professor at Brown until his retirement in 1991. He continued to teach at Brown and also at Brandeis University. During this time, Morris donated much of his personal library to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, including a number of rare books on India's economy.
He died March 12, 2011 at the age of 90, survived by his wife Michelle B. McAplin and two sons, Noah and Sam.
Hand-written and typed notes, work plans, referee reports, and copies of correspondence with a whole generation of mainly American historians researching the economic and social history of the non-western world.
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Tirthankar Roy, London School of Economics