Obituaries
Frederick Morrissey, Oliver Pearson

12 March 2003

Frederick Morrissey

Frederick Morrissey
Frederick Patric Morrissey, a professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business and a recognized expert on the finance and regulation of public utilities, died Feb. 27 at the age of 82. A resident of El Cerrito, Morrissey died at John Muir Medical Center 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. Following military service, he returned to Toronto, earning his master’s degree in commerce in 1946, and teaching in the university’s Department of Political Economy from 1946 to 1947. In 1949, he earned his Ph.D. in economics at Columbia University.

He joined the Berkeley faculty that same year, as a professor of business administration, and served two terms as associate dean of academic affairs. In the late ‘60s he reorganized the campus’s Summer Session to eliminate red ink and make the program self-supporting. And when the university switched from the semester system to the quarter system in that decade, he was appointed to implement the change on the Berkeley campus.

Morrissey took a leave from 1967 to 1969 to serve as a commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission, and studied and wrote about utility problems. He also testified several times about regulatory issues before California legislative committees and the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee.

Morrissey left the campus in 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.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation to a charity of personal choice.

Oliver Pearson
Professor emeritus of zoology Oliver Payne Pearson, former director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and an expert on the ecology of small mammals and birds, died Tuesday, March 4, of heart failure at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.

Pearson, who had lived in Orinda with his wife, Anita, since 1952, was 87.

Pearson specialized in field studies of small animals, concentrating on their behavior, physiology and energetics. He made fundamental contributions in many fields, from systematics, field natural history, and biogeography to animal behavior and energetics.

Born in Philadelphia on Oct. 21, 1915, Pearson obtained his BS from Swarthmore College in 1937 and his MA and PhD from Harvard University in 1939 and 1947, respectively. He continued his education with lengthy trips to Panama and Peru, where he collected a wide variety of scientific specimens for the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, and, principally, Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

He first came to Berkeley in 1947 as an instructor in zoology and was named an assistant professor of zoology and assistant curator of mammals at the museum in 1949. He remained at Berkeley as professor until his active retirement began in 1971, serving as director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology from 1967 until his retirement.

Pearson served as a director of the American Society of Mammalogists for a total of 17 years between 1952 and 1990, and was elected a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences in 1964. He also was a member of the board of directors of the San Francisco Zoological Society in 1959-60.

Pearson is survived by his wife of 58 years, Anita Kelley Pearson; son, Peter Pearson, of Livermore; daughters, Carol Ralph of Arcata, Sandy Ivey of Orinda, and Alison Pearson of Sonoma; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for 2 p.m., Saturday, March 15, in the Great Hall of the Faculty Club.