Charles Bradfield Morrey Jr. was born July 23, 1907, in
Columbus, Ohio; his father was a
professor of
bacteriology at
Ohio State University, and his mother was president of a school of music in Columbus. His sister
Marion Morrey Richter was a composer and pianist. Therefore it can be said that his one was a family of
academicians. Perhaps from his mother's influence, he had a lifelong love for
piano, even if
mathematics was his main interest since his childhood. He was at first educated in the public schools of Columbus and, before going to the university, he spent a year at
Staunton Military Academy in
Staunton, Virginia. they married in 1937 With summers off the family enjoyed traveling: they crossed the
United States by car at least 20 times, visiting many natural wonders, and looked forward to the
AMS meetings, held each year in August. They usually spent abroad their
sabbatical leaves, and doing so they visited nearly every European country, witnessing many changes succeeding during the period from the 1950s to the 1980s. and then studied at
Harvard University under the supervision of
George Birkhoff, obtaining a
Ph.D. in 1931 with a thesis entitled
Invariant functions of Conservative Surface Transformations. After being awarded his Ph.D, he was a
National Research Council Fellow at Princeton, at the
Rice Institute and finally at the
University of Chicago. and was a faculty member until his retirement in 1973. In Berkeley, he was early given several administrative duties, for example being the
Chairman of the Department of Mathematics during the period 1949–1954, and being the Acting Chairman, the Vice Chairman and the Director of the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics at various times. During the years 1937–1938 and 1954–1955 he was a member of the
Institute for Advanced Study: he was also Visiting Assistant Professor at
Northwestern University, Visiting Professor at the
University of Chicago and
Miller Research Professor at Berkeley. On the fifth of June 1973 he was awarded the prestigious
Berkeley Citation. and being continuously attentive for people, mathematics and musics. His human qualities are described as the complement to his ability in administrative duties and in scientific research: as a confirmation of his skills in scientific research, also states that he was one of the strongest workers in
analysis.
The Charles B. Morrey Jr. Assistant Professorship In 1985 his widow, Frances Eleonor Morrey, née Ross, established the
Charles B. Morrey Jr. Assistant Professorship at the Berkeley Mathematics department, to honor his memory. == Work ==