Dr. John Corboy, Co-Director of the Rocky Mountain MS Center at University of Colorado, has been named the inaugural Charles Elliot Morris Chair in Neurology. Dr. Corboy serves as Co-Director of the Rocky Mountain MS Center at University of Colorado and Department of Neurology’s Executive Vice Chair. He celebrated his 25th anniversary with the Department of Neurology this past July. Congratulations, Dr. Corboy!
Charles “Chuck” Elliot Morris, and his wife, Naomi Carolyn Minner, met as teens and were the first married couple to be admitted to the CU Medical School. Both found their four years in medical school here satisfying and rewarding, and recall it as a happy time in their lives. After graduating, they interned at the L.A. County General Hospital, and then received further training at Harvard. Chuck trained under the esteemed neurologist, Dr. Derek Denny-Brown, and after serving two years in the U.S. Navy, accepted a faculty position at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Naomi became an expert in ambulatory pediatrics and also accepted a faculty position at the UNC School of Public Health. In 1970, Chuck became the neurologist in charge of the NINDS research laboratory on Guam, Marianas Islands to study ALS and Parkinsonian dementia. In 1975, Naomi became Chair of the Department of Maternal and Child Health, and shortly after, Chuck was invited to become Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at the Chicago Medical School. Chuck and Naomi’s two children both followed in their parents footsteps and became physicians: Jonathan attended UNC for his medical degree to become a psychiatrist; and David received his MD from Northwestern to become a neurologist.
Although Naomi chose to name the Chair in Chuck’s memory, establishment of this Chair of Neurology memorializes the entire family, their ideals and their accomplishments. Chuck was a most-beloved husband and father and considered an outstanding colleague, mentor, and teacher of medical students and neurology residents, with a mischievous sense of humor – all traits we can definitely see in John! Naomi and their sons want Chuck’s name remembered in the context of academic neurology and hope that the lives and philosophy of their family will inspire future generations of physicians.