Morss, Noel, 1904-1981.

Noel Morss was born in Boston on December 25, 1904 to Ethel Read Morss and Everett Morss. He prepared for college at the Groton School, and graduated from Harvard in 1926 with a B.A. in economics. Morss went on to receive a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1929 and to practice professionally as an attorney. His interest in anthropology and archaeology was bolstered by his Chestnut Hill neighbors Dr. Hugh O'Neill Hencken and his wife Thalassa Cruso, and by summers later spent leading Peabody Museum archaeological expeditions to Arizona & Utah in 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1929. According to J.O. Brew, Morss was "the scholar who defined the Fremont Culture of eastern Utah." His publications on Fremont figurines were highly regarded by his anthropology colleagues.

Although Morss did not pursue this interest professionally, his work was of such caliber that he was appointed Chairman on the Visiting Committee, Harvard University Department of Anthropology & Peabody Museum in 1954; and was PM Research Fellow in Prehistory of the American Southwest 1955-60.

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