$1.1 Million Emory Morris Gift is the Largest Gift to the Sciences in Brockport History
Professor Emeritus J. Emory Morris, who taught chemistry for 42 years at The College at Brockport, has made a gift commitment of $1.1 million to endow a scholarship in the field of science and to expand funding available to support opportunities for undergraduate students to pursue research in chemistry and biochemistry at the College full time in the summer.
The gift is the largest ever made in support of the sciences in the history of the College, which is part of the State University of New York system. It will support the Morris Opportunity Scholarship for the Study of Science. In addition, a portion of the gift will be used for annual awards to the faculty research mentors. These Opportunity Scholarships are intended as incentives to pre-college students to pursue this preparation.
Morris is an advocate for educating students in the sciences and mathematics at a young age and rebuffed the common views of science as being terribly complex or only for people considered to be “brainy.” He said that it is critical students have completed the right coursework before they enter college because it is the foundation that will allow them to succeed academically. As part of his advocacy efforts, Morris volunteers as a tutor at a local school.
“Since I have spent my career in education, I have been focused on supporting education,” said Morris. “It used to be the case that an ambitious student could earn the money in the summer that was needed for school. But that is not the case anymore.”
“Our history from the earliest formation of the republic was that education was supported as the public good. Now, with so many demands being made on public money, we seem to have unconsciously taken the decision that higher education is a personal good rather than a public good.”
Brockport Foundation Board Chair Diane McCue praised Morris for his generosity.
“Seeing the results of the program that Emory spearheaded demonstrates that real-life experiences and a traditional education are a powerful combination,” said McCue, who is a 1977 graduate of Brockport.
The gift to The College at Brockport is the latest in a long history of support by Morris.
In 1988, he established the Morris Fellowships for Summer Research in Chemistry. Through this program, students are able to spend their summers exclusively collaborating with professors on research projects. These sustained research opportunities provide a clear advantage for chemistry majors when they apply to graduate school or begin their first jobs.
And in 2008, Morris created a $100,000, three-year challenge to the College’s chemistry alumni and other supporters of the sciences to help fund the undergraduate summer research program. The College recently met—and surpassed—the challenge.
A native of Silver Spring, Md., Morris’ father was a research biochemist at the National Cancer Institute. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1959 and went on to earn his master’s (1962) and doctorate (1966) degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He joined the Brockport faculty in the fall of 1967 after spending two years with the U.S. Peace Corps in Iran teaching biochemistry and chemistry at Shiraz University. While in Iran, Morris responded to an advertisement Brockport had placed in an academic career opportunities journal asking for applicants for a teaching position. Morris still recalls receiving the cable for a one year contract despite not being able to interview in person.
When he arrived, Morris successfully turned a semester-length biochemistry course into a yearlong course with laboratory and went on to lead a successful career here. In 1973, he received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. And from 1988-94, he led the department as chair. In 2009, he became a member of the College’s emeriti community, but Morris continued to work until last September as director of the College’s Pre-professional Health Program. Morris has demonstrated his leadership in making this gift to the College.
“People of ordinary means are also generous in the causes they support,” he said.
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