Office of the President

Morris Berthold Abram

1968 to 1970

Morris B. Abram, the second president of Brandeis, was a tireless advocate for civil rights and human rights, a towering figure in the American Jewish community, an adviser to five U.S. presidents, and a distinguished lawyer.

He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Georgia and later earned a law degree from the University of Chicago and a master's degree from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar.

When he assumed the Brandeis presidency during the turbulent 1960s, he found a campus seething with the discontent of the era. His administration weathered a series of crises, including an 11-day takeover of Ford Hall by members of the Brandeis Afro-American Organization.

From 1970 until the time of his death at the age of 81 in 2000, Abram was a partner in the New York City law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison.