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Senator Wayne Layman Morse

Toastmaster, Politician, and Accomplished Public Speaker

Harvey Schowe, DTM - District 7 Historian

Gleason, Wayne L. Morse, and Frederick
H. Krage (closer)
He also received the Vilas Medal in

intercollegiate debate and earned an ROTC
commission of Second Lieutenant Artillery.
After graduating in 1919, with a Letters and
Science degree, Morse studied for a Masters’

degree at the University of Wisconsin. After
graduation, Wayne Morse married Mildred
Martha Downie, June 1924. He taught at the
University of Minnesota as assistant professor

of argument and taught at a Catholic school
in St. Paul. He attended night law school and
received a law degree in 1928. He was granted
a University of Columbia Fellowship in law. In

his classes, Morse stressed the importance of a
speaker’s personality and applying psychology
to effect and encourage the desired behavior. an Oregon Chancellor of Higher Education.
While chairman of the University of After entering politics, he was elected an

Minnesota Beginning Speech Class Committee Oregon US Senator. In 1958, Senator Wayne
in April 1929, he published an article entitled Morse provided advice to Emery V. Hildebrandt
“The Application of Mental-Hygiene Technique on speech preparation in a magazine article.
in Teaching Speech” for the National Committee The article is available from the University of

for Mental Hygiene publication. The University Oregon Knight Library, Senator Wayne Morse
of Oregon hired Morse as an assistant professor on Speech Preparation by Emery V. Hildebrandt,
of law and public speaking instructor during the Taylor & Francis Group Today’s Speech, vol 6
summer of 1929. Later Wayne Morse became (2) p 7-9.

VOICES! | MARCH 2023 43