Robert E. Morris, DDS ’69, MPH, FICD
In 2019, Robert Morris received the Distinguished Achievement Alumni Award from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD), where he had earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree 50 years earlier. The honor recognized his decades-long efforts as a philanthropist, public health pioneer, and champion of health education.
But Morris says he left out a note of appreciation in his remarks upon receiving the award and would like to amend his comments now that he is being recognized with an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).
“After the awards ceremony in 2019, I asked myself, ‘What did I not say that I should have?’ ” Morris said. “And it was a simple thing: I did not extend my thank-you to the state of Maryland for accepting students in great numbers from Massachusetts and New England into the dental school at in-state tuition rates. I was able to come to Maryland to get my dental degree and not to break my parents’ slim bank account.
“So now is my chance: To fair Maryland, I say, ‘Thank you!’ ”
Robert E. Morris, recipient of 2025 UMB Honorary Doctor of Public Service
Morris will receive his UMB recognition during UMSOD’s Honors Convocation on May 23 at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore. His list of achievements is long and impressive, and his life work has been impactful on a global level, said UMSOD Dean Mark A. Reynolds, DDS ’86, PhD, MA, who nominated Morris for an Honorary Doctor of Public Service degree.
“Dr. Morris’ varied lifelong contributions have significantly improved the health and quality of life for vulnerable populations throughout the world, particularly children, refugees, victims of war, and those living with HIV/AIDS,” Reynolds said. “We are pleased that UMB will bestow this degree in recognition of his decades of leadership, development of health policy and education, and dedication to serving vulnerable populations.”
After graduating from UMSOD in 1969, Morris completed a two-year tour with the U.S. Navy including one year in Vietnam — an experience that inspired his commitment to improving public health systems worldwide that has spanned more than five decades. In 1984, while working in South America, a random phone call affirmed his commitment.
“I was deep in a jungle in South America carrying out my work, and I felt that I had an epiphany, not unlike St. Paul on the road to Damascus,” Morris said. “I received a very unusual telephone call from a Jesuit in Poona [now Pune], India. Jesuits are part of my training and my history — I earned my undergraduate degree at the College of the Holy Cross. He asked me a question: ‘What are you doing for God today.’
“I thought about that for a long time and decided that I would just do my job and exchange and share my knowledge, my expertise, my experiences, and my wisdom — so much of it received at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry — with anyone who would need my help. That was over 40 years ago, and I have continued this work for many years.”
Making a Global Impact
As part of their philanthropic efforts, Morris and his wife, Jill, are among the co-founders of the Mai Tam House of Hope Project in Vietnam, which provides medicine, food, housing, and educational and income-generating opportunities to mothers and children affected by HIV/AIDS. Morris considers his work there to be one of his proudest accomplishments.
“Late in our careers, my dear and beautiful wife and I decided to reach out again to pay back for the blessings in our life. For me, the way to do that was to go back to Vietnam and work with the most vulnerable in society there,” Morris said.
“An offer came to us to sponsor an orphanage for abandoned infants suffering from HIV/AIDS. The project has been very successful for almost 20 years, maybe the finest in Vietnam. This has let us work with Father John Toai, the young founder of the orphanage who is known widely in the international community as a living saint.”
Morris serves as the Mai Tam House of Hope’s international health consultant and continues to work with organizations that provide free medical care to child victims of war. Closer to home, he established a scholarship fund for students from Trinidad and Tobago at the College of the Holy Cross, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in classics and pre-med in 1965.
Morris also attended the Harvard School of Public Health, graduating in 1986 with a Master of Public Health degree. He joined the Ministry of Health in Kuwait, helping to develop a school of oral hygiene, a national dental school at Kuwait University, a postgraduate training center for refugee dentists, and the Health for All 2000 project’s oral health plan, a World Health Organization-backed comprehensive oral disease prevention program for children in Kuwait.
But his time in Kuwait included a frightening detour in 1990, when Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi military invaded Kuwait and Morris became a hostage as the Gulf War commenced. He documented the experience in his 2002 book, “120 Days in Deep Hiding: Outwitting the Iraqis in Occupied Kuwait.”
“I was captured by the Iraqi military and taken to the Sheraton Hotel in Kuwait City, but I was able to escape from the hotel and go into deep hiding,” Morris said. “I remained a hostage in international legalese for the next four months, hiding in my apartment. In international law, if you are not free to go out for fear of your life, you are considered a hostage.
“In December, Saddam announced that all hostages could go free, and that is how I returned to the United States and my family. I cannot explain why Saddam did that. As I stated when I got back to Boston, I considered it a miracle.”
Morris returned to Kuwait after the Gulf War, serving as a senior consultant to the Ministry of Health and leading plans for the post-war reconstruction of the oral health sector and the implementation of a comprehensive disease prevention program for children. Applying this strategic approach to other public health issues, he also worked with the Gulf Cooperation Council to develop seat-belt and smoking laws in the Arab Gulf States.
Earlier in his career, Morris served on volunteer projects in Baltimore and the mountain villages of Baja, Mexico; taught at UMSOD for three years; and joined the Pan American Health Organization, which sent him to Trinidad and Tobago. There, he established a school that educates dental nurses from 13 developing countries of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, dramatically increasing the number of oral health clinicians available to provide children’s health care and prevention in those regions. In 2024, the program celebrated 47 years of service to the Caribbean community.
Accolades Keep Coming
Morris has written widely on diverse topics such as quantifying HIV risk in dental care workers, the cost effect and benefits of alternative fluoride interventions, and the fluctuations in health status and incidence of maxillofacial fractures, head and neck cancers, and oral disease in relation to smoking. And his efforts have been recognized with numerous awards.
In 1970, Morris received the U.S. Navy Achievement Medal for his service to fellow Navy seamen and Marines, his voluntary travel to bases deep within the Vietnam war zone, and his work to provide dental care to Vietnamese villagers. In 2000, he was one of 11 living dentists worldwide to be honored by the World Dental Federation for lifelong service to international health and contributions to oral health research.
In 2010, Morris was recognized by the College of the Holy Cross with the Sanctae Crucis Award, the school’s highest non-academic award for alumni. And, in 2014, he received the Harvard School of Public Health’s most prestigious alumni honor, the Alumni Award of Merit.
Morris prides himself on being a lifelong learner. In May 2024, exploring his heritage, he added a third advanced degree to his résumé — a postgraduate diploma in Irish studies from the University of Galway in Ireland — at the age of 81.
As for his honorary degree from UMB, Morris happened to be in Baltimore and had just attended a UMSOD scholarship function when he learned of the award in an email from Dean Reynolds.
“I was shocked after reading the email, turned to my wife, and handed her my phone, but I said nothing,” Morris said. “She was shocked, too, but was very happy. She immediately sent the email to our children in Washington, D.C., waking them up in the middle of the night so they could be surprised and share in the good news with us.”