Oldest Caltech Alumnus, 101, Sees ‘What Happens When You Stick Around’

Caltech’s oldest living alumnus is even older than the name of the school.

It was Throop Polytechnic Institute when Virgil F. Morse enrolled in 1910 and when he became the first president of the Alumni Assn. in 1915. In those days, the school occupied a small corner of the campus that in 1920 became California Institute of Technology.

Morse came to the Alumni Assn. headquarters for lunch recently and, as an alumnus for 72 years, was awarded an honorary life membership as a gift for his 101st birthday.

“See what happens when you stick around?” said Morse--wit, poet, engineer and object of the admiration of a dozen guests who came to wish him well.

Morse, who had moved to California from Illinois and worked a few years sorting mail, enrolled in college in 1910 at age 25. One of a class of seven, he studied electrical engineering, got straight A’s and graduated in 1914.

“I’m basking in the glory of its present-day reputation,” he said of the school. “Now kids in grade school know more than I ever learned about electricity. I feel dumb, compared to what the kids know. I feel pretty far behind the times.”

One luncheon guest disagreed. “I’m quite impressed with how sharp he is,” said David Harper, an Alumni Assn. vice president. He said the second-oldest alumnus is Robert Allen, 89, of Los Angeles.

The luncheon was the second in recent years to honor Morse. In 1984, when he was 98, he was invited to dine with Caltech President Marvin Goldberger and sat for a photograph that hangs beside those of other Alumni Assn. presidents.

Morse lives in a convalescent hospital in Granada Hills. His wife of 72 years, Stella, died last month at the age of 98. He walks with a cane, does not wear glasses or a hearing aid, and entertains himself and others with poetry that he wrote and memorized.

When Ben Earl, a member of the Alumni Assn. board, presented Morse with a plaque in recognition of his longevity and alumni membership, the guest of honor said, “I just don’t know enough to quit.”

Morse is a man of enduring commitments. Before he married Stella, they were engaged for nine years while he finished his studies at Throop and she graduated from USC with a degree in music. They met when she was organist at the Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena.

After graduating from Throop, Morse taught mathematics at Occidental College until he lost his job during the Depression. He later was an engineer for the city of Los Angeles, retiring in 1956. He and his wife reared their five children on a six-acre farm in Pacoima.

Morse said he had no advice for living a long and healthy life, observing only that he never smoked or drank alcohol and that “I chew my food well. I think that matters.”

Morse was brought to the Alumni Assn. luncheon by his next-to-youngest child, Paul Morse, 65, of Sylmar, who said his father had six siblings, one of whom lived to be 104. The senior Morse has 14 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

“We’ve helped out a great deal with California’s population,” he said. “I’d say we’re a pretty tough bunch.”