About Francis X. Morrissey Jr.
His life, adventures and misadventures, triumphs and disasters |
Francis Xavier Morrissey Jr. "FXM" was born October 14, 1942, at Faulkner Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Known as "Frank" to his friends and family, he was the second of seven children of devout Irish Catholic parents, Francis Xavier Morrissey Sr. and Frances Kelly Morrissey.
As the son of a stevedore and one of twelve children, Francis's father put himself through night law school. He worked for Massachusetts Governor Maurice Tobin until General George Patton had recommended FXM Sr. to Joseph Kennedy. The reputation of FXM Sr.'s father as a tough, respected longshoreman and FXM Sr.'s work with the Salvation Army impressed Joseph Kennedy. He hired FXM Sr. to work on the 1946 Congressional campaign of his son John F. Kennedy. FXM Sr. helped run JFK's Boston Congressional office and worked on his 1952 winning Senate campaign. FXM Sr. was appointed Municipal Court Judge in Boston in 1958. The Kennedys regarded FXM Sr. as part of the Kennedy family.
Sparked by his father’s service working for the Kennedys, Francis went on to lead an adventurous life in which he met many famous figures.
Francis attended St. Thomas Aquinas Grammar School in Boston. At age twelve he received a diagnosis of dyslexia. Thanks to a strong visual aptitude, he excelled in art and algebra. In grades 7 through 12, Francis attended the Christian Brothers Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury where he excelled in debate, winning a college debating scholarship to Iona College, although he enrolled at Harvard instead. He also ran track and participated in the boys' swim club.
Despite his dyslexia, Francis loved Latin and immersed himself in the classics. At eighteen years old, he enrolled at Harvard College, majoring in English. Classmates remember Francis as having a strong philosophical, literary and cultural talents. Thus, his conversations were filled with references to icons like Shakespeare, Plutarch and Zola. Lifelong friend Frederick Kass, who served in the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, noted Francis’s charm and ease with the socially prominent: “Frank had associations for all his life with people who are powerful and influential.”
During his freshman year at Harvard, he joined the Phillips Brooks House public service organization and worked with men at area asylums. Near the end of his first year, Francis's friend and classmate, Ashraf Adamjee, asked Francis to be his best man in his wedding in Dhaka, East Pakistan. Francis traveled to Northwest Pakistan with another Harvard classmate, Hassan Musa, who was the son of General Muhammad Musa Khan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army serving under President Ayub Khan. Francis's journey to Pakistan and India made an indelible impact on his character and his outlook on life.
Impressed by Francis and his father's relationship with JFK, General Musa welcomed him by arranging a visit to the modest villages of his Batang soldiers. While in Peshawar, Francis was eating lunch with General Musa when the General was called away to speak with Soviet emissaries. Upon his return, General Musa said to Francis, “Tell your President [JFK] that I told the Russians to go to hell.” Later, Francis learned that the Russians were urging Musa to close the U.S. military base in Rawalpindi, a key Cold War asset during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
During his trip, Francis stayed in the luxurious home of the Maharani of Jaipur at the recommendation of General Musa. While wandering the poorer sections of the city, Francis noticed a woman hunched toward the ground, sobbing as she desperately pulled food from a dog’s mouth. “That image stayed with me for the rest of my life,” said Francis, who noted that memory as the spark that ignited his lifelong passion for helping the poor.
Francis also met with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a meeting arranged by a sympathetic Sikh aide to the famed leader. When Francis asked Nehru, “What does a privileged man do with the experience of India?” the Prime Minister answered: “That’s very simple. You love us. If you love us as brothers and sisters, you help us. And if you don’t love us as brothers and sisters, we don’t want your help.”
After returning to the U.S., Francis met with some intelligence officials in Cambridge to recount his meetings with General Musa and Nehru and his experiences in West Pakistan near the frontier with Afghanistan at the Khyber Pass.
Francis returned to Harvard that fall and led the debating team to victories over West Point and Yale. He also involved himself with several of Harvard’s social organizations: Fox Club, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and the Harvard Lampoon. But throughout the gaiety, he remained somber with the memories of the poor and desperate people he saw in South Asia. “From then on, I could never really laugh at anything one hundred percent,” said Francis. “I could draw cartoons, but I just could not think in humorous terms. I had become obsessed with alleviating human suffering.”
More to come...
As the son of a stevedore and one of twelve children, Francis's father put himself through night law school. He worked for Massachusetts Governor Maurice Tobin until General George Patton had recommended FXM Sr. to Joseph Kennedy. The reputation of FXM Sr.'s father as a tough, respected longshoreman and FXM Sr.'s work with the Salvation Army impressed Joseph Kennedy. He hired FXM Sr. to work on the 1946 Congressional campaign of his son John F. Kennedy. FXM Sr. helped run JFK's Boston Congressional office and worked on his 1952 winning Senate campaign. FXM Sr. was appointed Municipal Court Judge in Boston in 1958. The Kennedys regarded FXM Sr. as part of the Kennedy family.
Sparked by his father’s service working for the Kennedys, Francis went on to lead an adventurous life in which he met many famous figures.
Francis attended St. Thomas Aquinas Grammar School in Boston. At age twelve he received a diagnosis of dyslexia. Thanks to a strong visual aptitude, he excelled in art and algebra. In grades 7 through 12, Francis attended the Christian Brothers Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury where he excelled in debate, winning a college debating scholarship to Iona College, although he enrolled at Harvard instead. He also ran track and participated in the boys' swim club.
Despite his dyslexia, Francis loved Latin and immersed himself in the classics. At eighteen years old, he enrolled at Harvard College, majoring in English. Classmates remember Francis as having a strong philosophical, literary and cultural talents. Thus, his conversations were filled with references to icons like Shakespeare, Plutarch and Zola. Lifelong friend Frederick Kass, who served in the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, noted Francis’s charm and ease with the socially prominent: “Frank had associations for all his life with people who are powerful and influential.”
During his freshman year at Harvard, he joined the Phillips Brooks House public service organization and worked with men at area asylums. Near the end of his first year, Francis's friend and classmate, Ashraf Adamjee, asked Francis to be his best man in his wedding in Dhaka, East Pakistan. Francis traveled to Northwest Pakistan with another Harvard classmate, Hassan Musa, who was the son of General Muhammad Musa Khan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army serving under President Ayub Khan. Francis's journey to Pakistan and India made an indelible impact on his character and his outlook on life.
Impressed by Francis and his father's relationship with JFK, General Musa welcomed him by arranging a visit to the modest villages of his Batang soldiers. While in Peshawar, Francis was eating lunch with General Musa when the General was called away to speak with Soviet emissaries. Upon his return, General Musa said to Francis, “Tell your President [JFK] that I told the Russians to go to hell.” Later, Francis learned that the Russians were urging Musa to close the U.S. military base in Rawalpindi, a key Cold War asset during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
During his trip, Francis stayed in the luxurious home of the Maharani of Jaipur at the recommendation of General Musa. While wandering the poorer sections of the city, Francis noticed a woman hunched toward the ground, sobbing as she desperately pulled food from a dog’s mouth. “That image stayed with me for the rest of my life,” said Francis, who noted that memory as the spark that ignited his lifelong passion for helping the poor.
Francis also met with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a meeting arranged by a sympathetic Sikh aide to the famed leader. When Francis asked Nehru, “What does a privileged man do with the experience of India?” the Prime Minister answered: “That’s very simple. You love us. If you love us as brothers and sisters, you help us. And if you don’t love us as brothers and sisters, we don’t want your help.”
After returning to the U.S., Francis met with some intelligence officials in Cambridge to recount his meetings with General Musa and Nehru and his experiences in West Pakistan near the frontier with Afghanistan at the Khyber Pass.
Francis returned to Harvard that fall and led the debating team to victories over West Point and Yale. He also involved himself with several of Harvard’s social organizations: Fox Club, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and the Harvard Lampoon. But throughout the gaiety, he remained somber with the memories of the poor and desperate people he saw in South Asia. “From then on, I could never really laugh at anything one hundred percent,” said Francis. “I could draw cartoons, but I just could not think in humorous terms. I had become obsessed with alleviating human suffering.”
More to come...