Dr. Morris was born in Chicago in 1931 to Carrie (Auslender) and Morris Minner, married Charles Morris in 1951, and then graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Colorado. They subsequently entered the University of Colorado School of Medicine, the first married couple to do so, graduating in 1955. In 1959, Dr. Morris earned her Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Morris' extensive career began with a job at the Massachusetts State Health Department in the Division of Maternal and Child Health, subsequently working for a county health department in Virginia. In 1961, Dr. Morris moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she began seeing pediatric patients and engaging in research and teaching in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. During a sabbatical year from 1970 into 1971, Dr. Morris served as Advisor to the Chief Health Officer for the US Territory of Guam Health Department.
Dr. Morris served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health from 1975-1977. After moving to Illinois, Dr. Morris briefly was on faculty at the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School, subsequently becoming the Chair of the Division of Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health, a role she held from 1980 through 1995. In this role, Dr. Morris successfully applied for and received a federally funded Maternal and Child Health Training Grant. Dr. Morris remained on the faculty for another 10 years until her retirement from UIC in 2005.
During her long career, Dr. Morris served on numerous local, state, and national committees and boards in both volunteer and elected positions. These organizations have included the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Chicago Department of Public Health, the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health, and the Maternal and Child Health Section of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Morris published well over 50 peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, and book chapters, and is noted to have received many important awards as well as having mentored numerous students and launched many careers. In 1999, Dr. Morris received the Martha May Eliot Award for Outstanding Contributions to Maternal and Child Health, and in 2003 received the March of Dimes Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Dr. Morris is survived by her sons Jonathan and David, and was preceded in death by her husband Charles in 1998.
To offer your condolences and to sign Naomi's online guestbook, please visit www.jonesrichandbarnes.com
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