Bob Morris, 1942 - 2004

On August 12th, 2004, Nancy Zingrone sent a note to friends and colleagues around the world saying,

Joanna Morris asked us to let you know that Bob had a sudden heart attack overnight and has died. He came back from the convention having had a terrific time and spent a happy day yesterday sharing his experiences. There was no warning, she said, just a sore shoulder. ...

We can't believe we have lost such a wonderful man, such an accomplished diplomat on behalf of the field and a deep and accomplished scientist.

Nancy & Carlos

Bob was in his usual form at the meeting in Vienna, funny and serious at the same time. No hint that we would lose him so suddenly, which makes precognition as a practical thing seem terribly unlikely and ineffective. So many people were in his aura, and so many projects dependent on him. The positive perspective is that he did have so much love in his life, and so much accomplishment.

He was important personally and professionally to people in the field of parapsychology, and to a wider circle of friends. In a manner similar to some previous explorations, I decided to make a formal event prediction for the GCP, not least because the idea of experimenter effects has more than usual meaning here. Since the best information on the time I had was Nancy's note, I chose a period beginning at 05:00 local time in Scotland, and lasting until 21:00, by which time the news had spread to the community of friends and colleagues around the world through email lists.

The combined activity of 63 eggs running at the time has a remarkable appearance, with a strong downward trend for a few hours, followed by an equally strong positive trend for the rest of the day. It is similar to the first such exploration, done at the death of egg host Barry Fenn. The formal analysis gives Chisquare 57826.239 on 57600 df, and p = 0.252 (Z = 0.668). The result is ambiguous -- as is the case for so many of the questions we formulate in this field. Even with the most generous interpretation, it does not begin to express our loss of a much loved friend and colleague. Bob himself would have looked at this analysis skeptically, and with an open mind.

After the formal analysis (Aug 25) I learned that the time of death was mid-morning. The graph reaches its minimum and turns positive near the time, but we cannot know if this is meaningful.

What is meaningful is expressed in this picture, taken by Susie Radin at a conference in Japan in 2002. Bob's inimitable smile, that touched so many and made friends of all of us.