Charlie Morrissey: His Life and Career

On Tuesday, October 5th, the Pritzker Military Museum & Library welcomed noted historian Charles Morrissey. Ed Tracy talked with him about his life and his career.

Charles T. Morrissey is a self-employed oral history consultant with 42 years of experience. His current projects include the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the Bill Clinton Project at the University of Arkansas, the Bush Foundation in St. Paul, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Norwich University where he is interviewing former presidents Loring Hart and Russell Todd. Past Projects include the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia, the Hall Family of Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, family histories focused on child raising in the 1930's and 1940's funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and interviews with former members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

He started in oral history by interviewing former members of the White House staff during the Harry Truman presidency and subsequently became director of the John F. Kennedy Library of Oral History Project. While directing an intensive two-year oral history of the Ford Foundation (1971-1973) he served as President of the U.S. Oral History Association. Frequently he teaches intensive "how-to-do-it" oral history workshops, ranging from Vermont College in Montpelier (since 1975), Portland State University in Oregon (since 1979), and San Francisco (since 1995). He has lectured about oral history applications and methodologies at more than 50 American colleges, published more than 50 articles on the same themes, reviewed books in 30 publications, and from 1948 to 1988 edited the International Journal of Oral History. Currently near completion is a book chapter of 14,000 words about oral history interviewing skills.

His books include Vermont: A Bicentennial History, and the transcript of his interviews with George D. Aiken, Vermont's governor (1937-1941) and U.S. Senator (1941-1975). Twice he has been a Fellow at the Aspen Institute, and he received the Harvey A. Kantor Award for "outstanding achievement in oral history." Since 1982 he has broadcast a weekly history-centered commentary for Radio Vermont, and since 1997 a monthly column for the Hardwick Gazette. Three of his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Frequently he advises oral history projects about start-up planning, management, and funding, and evaluates completed projects. These include the Martin Luther King, Jr., site in Atlanta, Afro-American sites in Mississippi, the American Jewish Women's Archive in Brookline, Massechusetts, the Riverside Church in New York City, and the Motown Museum in Detroit.