Morrie Schwartz

Morris S. Schwartz (b. December 20, 1916 at New York City, d. November 4, 1995 at Newton, Massachusetts) was an American educator. He gained posthumous fame as subject of the book Tuesdays With Morrie, published in 1997.

Schwartz grew up in the Jewish tenements in New York City. He took his undergraduate degree from City College in New York, and received his Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1946 and 1951 respectively. He wrote three books on mental health in the 1950s and 1960s. Additionally, he began teaching at Brandeis University, in the sociology department. Among his students was future sportswriter Mitch Albom. Schwartz continued to teach at Brandeis into his 70s, until a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis made it too difficult for him to continue.

After seeing Schwartz on Nightline discussing his illness, Albom found his old mentor, and they collaborated on Tuesdays with Morrie during Schwartz's final days in 1995. The book was published in 1997 and has spent more than 6 years on the USA Today best seller list. It was made into a TV movie in 1999, with Jack Lemmon playing the role of Schwartz.

His personal epitaph was "A Teacher to the Last."

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I think so many of us are too hard on ourselves for
what we didn’t accomplish or what we should have
done. The first step is to forgive yourself for all
the things you didn’t do that you should have
and all the things that you did do that you shouldn’t
have. Get rid of the guilt. Negative feelings don’t
do you much good. The way to deal with them is
to forgive yourself and forgive others.