March 15 is the date upon which Delta Gamma celebrates Founders’ Day. Read about the founding of Delta Gamma and its connection to Phi Delta Theta, a fraternity whose Founders’ Day is also celebrated on March 15.
Margaret Shove Morriss, Ph.D., was born in 1884. While at the Women’s College of Baltimore, she became a member of the Psi Chapter of Delta Gamma. The chapter reported in The Anchora, “Our college world has been greatly excited over the important fact of the Senior Play, ‘Twelfth Night.’ It touched our Delta Gamma world, too, since Margaret Morriss took the part of the Duke.”
During her senior year, Morriss was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, the Kalends. She also earned a Phi Beta Kappa key. Morriss graduated in 1904, several years before the institution became known as Goucher College.
She then enrolled in graduate study at Bryn Mawr. During 1906-07, Morriss went abroad and studied at the London School of Economics as a Dean Van Meter Fellow. She returned to Bryn Mawr and earned a doctorate in 1911. Her dissertation became the basis for her book, Colonial Trade in Maryland.
Morriss moved to South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she joined the faculty of Mount Holyoke College. She taught history and also served on its board of admissions. She was an active member of the College Equal Suffrage League. From 1917-1919, she took part in the war effort and served in the Y.W.C.A. in France and New York.
In 1923, she became the fourth Dean at Pembroke College, the women’s coordinate of Brown University. During her nearly three-decade tenure at Pembroke, the enrollment of women more than doubled and the demographics shifted from local students to students from all over the country and world. One of her first tasks was overseeing the establishment of a new Women’s Building. It opened in 1927.
Morriss became a member of the board of trustees at Goucher College in 1931. In addition, she served as national president of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) from 1937-1941. The AAUW Connecticut chapter established an international fellowship in her name.
Brown University created the Margaret S. Morriss Scholarship to honor her in 1951, the year she retired. A residence hall at the university bears her name.
Morriss Hall
The Northern Connecticut Delta Gamma Alumnae Association held a Founders’ Day banquet on Friday, March 27, 1953. Morriss was a guest of honor and was presented the Delta Gamma Rose Award to her for outstanding achievement in her field.
During her career she was awarded honorary degrees from Russell Sage College, Goucher College, Mount Holyoke College, and Rhode Island State College.
Morriss, a member of the Society of Friends, was 90 years old when she died on January 22, 1975.
