Haas Newsroom
Frederick Morrissey, UC Berkeley professor emeritus and public power expert, dies at age 82
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kathleen Maclay
(510) 643-5651
ckm@pa.urel.berkeley.edu
Berkeley, March 5, 2003 - Frederick Patric
Morrissey, a professor emeritus at the University of California,
Berkeley's Haas School of Business and a nationally recognized
expert on the finance and regulation of public utilities,
died on Feb. 27 at the age of 82.
Morrissey, a resident of El Cerrito, died at John Muir Memorial
Hospital in Walnut Creek of complications from a brain aneurysm.
The native of Brantford, Ontario, earned his bachelor's degree
at the University of Toronto in 1943. He served as a captain
in the Canadian Army from 1943 to 1945, and became the first
non-medical officer to receive a commission in the Royal Canadian
Medical Corps.
Morrissey returned to the University of Toronto, earning his
master's degree in commerce in 1946, and began working as
an instructor and lecturer in the university's Department
of Political Economy from 1946 to 1947.
After receiving the Granville Garth Fellowship, Morrissey
earned his Ph.D. in economics at Columbia University in 1949,
writing his thesis on Ontario's public hydroelectric power
commission.
He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1949 as a professor of
business administration, and served in various administrative
positions, including two terms as associate dean of academic
affairs. As director of the Summer Session at a time when
the program had been running deficits, Morrissey reorganized
to eliminate the red ink and make the program self-supporting.
When the university switched from the semester system to the
quarter system in the 1960s, he was appointed to implement
the change on the UC Berkeley campus.
Morrissey took a leave from UC Berkeley to serve as a commissioner
of the California Public Utilities Commission from 1967 to
1969, and studied and wrote about utility problems. He also
testified several times about regulatory issues before California
legislative committees and before the U.S. House of Representatives'
Ways and Means Committee.
After leaving the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Morrissey
served as a consultant and expert witness in regulation cases
in surrounding states, but declined requests to participate
in cases before the PUC.
In January 1975, he helped prepare an economic outlook report
for UC Berkeley business administration alumni that predicted
"dark" days ahead, when power demand would exceed
supply.
The utility industry was suffering inflation in construction
costs, high interest rates and skyrocketing fuel costs,. Utilities
were cutting back on planned and actual construction, and
regulatory commissions' inability to grant rate increases
fast enough hobbled electric utilities in efforts to raise
money in a depressed capital market, Morrissey said.
Morrissey was a member of the American Economic Association,
Canadian Political Science Association, Royal Economic Association
and the Western Economic Association. He left UC Berkeley
in July 1985, receiving the Berkeley Citation for distinguished
achievement and notable service to the university.
He is survived by his wife, Eileen; son, John, of Ridgefield,
Conn.; daughter, Patricia Cahill of Oakville, Ontario; sister,
Margaret Bourassa of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario; and four grandchildren.
His family requests a donation to a charity of personal choice
in lieu of flowers.
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NOTE: The spelling of Patric in first paragraph
is correct. Also, a downloadable photo of Frederick Morrissey
is available at http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/download/.
