Robert L. Morris

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Fall, 2004 by James C. Carpenter

Robert L. ("Bob") Morris, a leading spokesman for parapsychology to the world, died August 12, 2004. He had held the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology at the University of Edinburgh for 19 years. His work in that post was the summation of a very broad and fruitful career. There he developed a highly productive and congenial laboratory, taught actively and widely in the Psychology Department, and made uncounted friends around the globe for the curious questions of parapsychology, while disarming as many potential enemies with his consummate fairness, his intelligence, and his wit.

Bob was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1942. He was a very bright boy, and an only child until he was 17. This did not isolate him, however, because he was largely raised by the extended families of both his parents, and spent much time in these active and sometimes querulous family groups. From those early days he was known as a remarkable peacemaker. His childhood interests ran more to animals than to anything resembling the paranormal, and he tamed a little menagerie of wild creatures. He sometimes wore to school a pet anole (a lizard similar to a chameleon) around his neck under his shirt. Knowing him, I can imagine the shock he bestowed upon selected classmates.

His interest in parapsychology dates at least to the day when, as a boy, he found in a family closet a game for testing ESP that his parents had acquired. The game was modeled after the techniques developed by J. B. Rhine at Duke University, and Bob asked his parents if people could really obtain information in such ways. They said that they believed so, but so far as they knew, science had actually learned very little about it. He then asked why that was so, when such an obviously fascinating question was at stake. They didn't know the answer to that, and he decided that if this important issue continued to be so neglected, he might have to do something about it himself. He took a BS in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1963, where he had found time to assist in some of the psychokinesis experiments of R. A. McConnell. He also began a lively correspondence with J. B. Rhine himself, and decided to come to Duke to graduate school, where he could ground himself in mainstream methods and concepts in psychology, while seeing more for himself just how those parapsychologists were going about their business.

This is where I met Bob, in the summer of 1964, seated at the table for the weekly research meeting of the Parapsychology Laboratory. He was friendly, intelligent, and took notes in bursts as the ideas seemed to flow out of his ears. Bob and I both belonged to a small group that Rhine hosted for study and work for several summers. The others at first were Dave Rogers, Chuck Honorton, and Rex Stanford, with John Palmer and some others coming in a little later. Rhine lectured us, advised us intensely with interesting projects, flattered us and scolded us, and considered us his heirs. This little band shared a belief that the problems were very important, as well as a sense of admiration for the integrity of the Lab's work and for Rhine's courage under fire. We formed among us the sort of friendships and common sense of purpose that are singular in a lifetime.

Bob developed a close friendship also with Rhine, and that was only strained and not broken when this group's ties with Rhine and his laboratory were ruptured. Many, many people could keep Bob as a friend, but even the most hardheaded and hostile could not keep him long as an enemy.

Besides his parapsychological work, Bob's Duke years also found him involved in the study of animal behavior, as well as research at the university's Center for the Study of Aging and Development. As he would show in later years, his intellectual interests were broad, and his appetite for learning the best methods with which to study fascinating questions was keen. He graduated with a PhD in 1969, with a dissertation on factors influencing pair-bonding in ring doves, or, as he put it, "how birds kiss." Bob's interest in romance was not limited to birds, however, and in 1965 he met Joanna DuBarry. She recalls one day shortly after she arrived at the Duke psychology department to begin her own graduate work. She was walking down the hall asking another student if he knew anything about parapsychology, and where was J. B. Rhine anyway, when a deep voice behind her said something like, "Do you want to know about parapsychology?" He talked with her at length about the things he had learned. She remembers him as very serious but also as having the zany sense of humor and unusual slant on everything that she came to fall in love with. Bob and Joanna were married in 1966. After graduating from Duke, Bob took on a research position at the Psychical Research Foundation led by Bill Roll. There he applied his knowledge of comparative psychology in research on an apparent extrasensory influence of an out-of-body "traveler" on the behavior of some bonded pets, and also carried out careful studies with other human "gifted" subjects.