Deceased Members–2010

In Memory of Marlies S. Morrissey

Marlies S. Morrissey, FSA, MAAA, died peacefully on Feb. 1, 2010 at Duncaster in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Born in Berlin, Germany in 1919, she attended school in Germany and in Switzerland before coming to the United States in 1938 to attend Smith College. After graduating from Smith in 1940, she was hired by the Equitable Life Insurance Company in New York City.

Passing all her actuarial exams, Morrissey was inducted into the Society of Actuaries in 1951, one of a few female actuaries in the country at that time. She met and married William Morrissey in New York City on Sept. 6, 1952. In 1954, the couple moved to Norwalk, Connecticut. A year later, their daughter Carol was born. While raising Carol, Morrissey worked part–time for a small actuarial firm in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1969, she accepted a full–time job at Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company in Hartford, where she became the first female officer of the company and eventually the first female vice president. She worked there until her retirement in 1984.

Morrissey was an active member of the First Congregational Church of West Hartford and served in various roles with the League of Women Voters and the Smith College Alumni Association. During her retirement years, she traveled extensively, including trips to China, Australia, Peru, Northern Norway and Europe. She was a Meals–on–Wheels volunteer and an active member of the Duncaster Residents Association. She was a generous contributor to numerous organizations including MADD, Planned Parenthood, Doctors without Borders and Oxfam.

The oldest of five children, Morrissey was predeceased by her brother Klaus Schaeffer and is survived by her brother Dirk Schaeffer of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; sister, Angelica "Anka" Schneider of Lilienthal, Germany; brother, David Schaeffer of Littlehampton, England; her ex–husband, William Morrissey of Reading, Pennsylvania; her daughter Carol and son-in-law Mark, and their two children, Scott and Amy Shafer of Mercer Island, Washington.