Morris retires after 31 years

From basic computing to complicated programming languages to half a dozen mathematics courses, Robert Morris has taught it all.

Morris, associate professor of mathematics and computing, will retire in May after 31 years of service at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

When the computer information systems (CIS) major was new at UWSP, Morris taught several sections of "Introduction to Computing" every semester to 200 students in each class. Now, in order to serve students better, class sizes are smaller, but courses in the major are still filled to capacity.

Teaching computing can sometimes be like teaching a language, he says. Since the early 1980s, he has taught six computer programming languages, learning a new language or operating system at least every two years. It has been an ongoing experience -- sometimes he was learning a programming language as he taught it.

Shortly after Morris came to UWSP in 1969 he helped design the minor in CIS. Then he contributed to the development of the CIS major. He worked closely with Department Chair Bruce Staal and mathematics faculty member Dan Goulet, who took the proposal to the Board of Regents for approval in 1983.

Since the advent of the CIS major in the department, whenever there has been a computer specialist as chair of the department, there is a mathematics coordinator, and vice versa. Morris served as computing coordinator of the department for several years.

In the early 1980s, Morris taught faculty members how to use word processors in weeklong workshops funded by then Letters and Science Dean Howard Thoyre. More recently he has taught classes about the Internet at Portage High School.

Morris and fellow mathematics and computing faculty member, Matthew Liu, taught in Malaysia through a collaborative program with Indiana University from August 1989 to August 1990. Morris taught computing and Liu taught mathematics to indigenous Malaysians who constitute about 60 percent of the population. The mission of the program was to increase the economic standing of the targeted group.

Morris holds a bachelor’s degree from Hamline University and a master’s degree from Washington State University at Pullman, Wash. He also did post graduate work at Washington State.

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