Morrie Schwartz

• Name — Morrie Schwartz • Birth Name — Morris S. Schwartz • Born — 20 December 1916 • Birthplace — New York City, New York, U.S. • Died — 4 November 1995 • Place of death — Newton, Massachusetts, U.S. • Occupation — Professor at Brandeis University • Spouse — Charlotte Schwartz • Children — Robert and Jonathan Schwartz

Schwartz was the son of Charlie Schwartz, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who emigrated from Russia to escape the army. Schwartz's mother died when he was eight years old, and his brother David developed polio at a young age. His father would eventually marry a Romanian woman named Eva Schneiderman. Later in Schwartz's life, his father suffered a fatal heart attack after fleeing a mugging. Schwartz came from a Jewish family, but as an adult he adopted multiple beliefs from a variety of different religions. He completed doctoral work at the University of Chicago. Schwartz had two sons with his wife Charlotte, Robert and Jonathan. Schwartz was a 77-year-old sociology professor at Brandeis University when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He died in November 1995, a year and three months after being diagnosed with the disease.

Schwartz achieved national prominence posthumously after being featured as the subject of Mitch Albom's 1997 best-selling memoir, Tuesdays with Morrie. Albom had been a student of Schwartz's at Brandeis University, and years later had seen Schwartz on the television program Nightline. After Albom phoned Schwartz, he made a series of trips to visit him in the final weeks of Schwartz's life as he was gradually overtaken by ALS. The book recounts the fourteen visits Albom made, their conversations, Schwartz's lectures, and his life experiences. The book was adapted into a television film in 1999, starring Jack Lemmon as Schwartz.

• with Alfred H. Stanton: The Mental Hospital: A Study of Institutional Participation in Psychiatric Illness and Treatment. Basic Books 1950, (2009 edition) • with Charlotte Green Schwartz: Social Approaches to Mental Patient Care. Columbia University Press 1964 • with Emmy Lanning Shockley: The Nurse and the Mental Patient: a Study in Interpersonal Relations. Wiley 1966, • Letting Go: Morrie's Reflections on Living While Dying. Walker & Company 1996, • Morrie: In His Own Words. Delta Publishing 1997,