Father Thomas M. Morris, MM

Born: May 18, 1937
Ordained: June 13, 1964
Died: February 23, 1968

Father Thomas M. Morris was born in the Bronx, New York City, on May 18, 1937, the son of Irish-born parents. He attended Iona Preparatory High School in New Rochelle before entering Sophomore year at the Venard in September 1952. He received his B.A. degree in philosophy at Maryknoll College, Glen Ellyn, in 1959, attended the Bedford Novitiate 1959-1960, and received his B.D. and M.R.E. degrees at Maryknoll Seminary before his ordination on June 13, 1964. During his final years as a seminarian, he showed special interest in Latin America, in economics, and in labor-industrial relations questions.

After ordination with the class of 1964, he studied economics at Columbia University and in the fall of 1964 at the University of Chicago. During the years 1964-1966, he lived and did pastoral work at St. Dorothy’s Parish, 450 East 78th Street in Chicago. He was assigned to the Glen Ellyn faculty for the fall of 1966, but within a couple of weeks of the start of the fall term, became ill.

In one of his final letters, written in the fall of 1967, Father Morris wrote: “Maryknoll is really a family. I have truly experienced that to the full. Thank God for his goodness to me.” He died in the Cancer Memorial Hospital in New York City on February 23, 1968.

The Funeral Mass was concelebrated at Maryknoll on February 27, 1968. Father William A. Bergan, the Vicar General, was the principal celebrant. Fr. Morris classmate with the class of 1964, Father Eugene W. Toland, was the homilist. Burial was at Maryknoll.