Morris Berthold Abram (June 19, 1918 – March 15, 2000) was an American lawyer, civil rights activist, and president of Brandeis University.

[edit] Biography

Abram was born into a Jewish family in the small town of Fitzgerald, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia, where he excelled academically. At UGA, he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society and graduated (reportedly) with the highest grade-point average in the school's history at that time. Abram then earned a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. Although Abram was forced to forgo a Rhodes scholarship because of the Second World War, he later attended Oxford University and earned a master's degree there^[1].

As a civil rights activist, Abram was instrumental in ending the County Unit System of voting in Georgia, which many argued favored Georgia's rural, white population at the expense of its more urban black population. Abram was deeply affected by the Holocaust and later became an ardent supporter of Jewish causes.

In his long and distinguished legal career, Abram held a variety of high level positions, among them chief counsel of the Peace Corps and partner at the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

After being diagnosed with cancer, Abram published a memoir titled "The Day is Short". He died of a viral infection on March 15, 2000 in Geneva.^[2]

He had five children, Ruth Abram, Annie Abram, Morris Abram, Adam Abram, and Joshua Abram.

[edit] References

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