Morton Lebow, M.A. '49

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“Bourbon,” says Morton Lebow, M.A. ’49, (presumably) tongue-in-cheek, when asked the secret to his longevity.  Lebow, a World War II veteran, Purple Heart recipient and distinguished civil servant — whose grad school experience not only resulted in an English degree, but in a 70-year marriage — turns 100 years old March 26. But he’s not the first in his family to reach the century mark, suggesting that genes — and perhaps a youthful spirit — have a lot more to do with it than spirits of the liquid kind.

“My mother lived to 102, and my brother to 101. And here I am.”

Born in the Bronx, New York City, Lebow grew up a baseball fan in an era that featured some of the greatest players ever — names from the history books that, for Lebow, are not just legends; they were part of this childhood.

“The first game I ever went to, my uncle took me. I remember sitting in right field at Yankee Stadium and watching Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. I also went to a Negro League doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. I saw Satchel Paige pitch.”

On December 7, 1941, Lebow was a 15-year-old Townsend Harris High School student, listening on the radio to a different sport when he heard about his country’s entry into World War II.

“I was listening to a football game. They kept interrupting to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor. At first, I didn’t even know what Pearl Harbor was. But very quickly, everything changed.”

After graduating from high school, still too young to serve in the armed forces, he enrolled in City College of New York, where he competed as a distance runner on the track team.  He also ran for the integrated New York Pioneer Club during two summers.

In June 1944, he enlisted in the army (“I just felt it was my duty”) and trained at Camp Stewart, Georgia, as an anti-aircraft radar operator in an aircraft unit, and at Princeton University as part of the Army Specialized Training Reserve.

“I thought I was going to have an easy war,” Lebow said. “But then the Battle of the Bulge came, and they needed replacements in the infantry. So I was assigned to an infantry outfit as we made our way into Germany.”

The private first class served as the radio operator for his company, part of the 409th Infantry Regiment of the 103rd Infantry Division, during the advance toward the Rhine. He was severely wounded in Germany on March 20, 1945.  For his service, he received the Combat Infantry Badge, Purple Heart, and the European and American Theater medals.

Discharged in October 1945 from Camp Upton, New York, after a brief lecture tour for the Army, Lebow returned to City College, and enjoyed all the cultural attractions post-war New York City had to offer.

“When I got out of the Army and was at City College, Thursdays from 12 to 2 were reserved for club meetings — no classes. Four of us who had all been in the Army decided to go downtown to see matinees in the theater. We saw a play with an unknown actor at the time who played Marchbanks — Marlon Brando.

“What we would do is alternate cutting classes—Wednesday one week, Thursday the next—so we only missed one class a month. We even proposed to a professor that he create a theater course where we would read a play one week, see it the next, and then discuss it. He wanted to do it, but couldn’t get funding. Still, we saw an incredible season of theater. Tickets cost about $2.40, which felt expensive at the time.”

After completing his degree, Lebow applied to the two most prestigious universities in England to continue his education. But fate had something else in mind – and Lebow is grateful for that.

“The best thing that ever happened to me was that Oxford and Cambridge turned me down, because at UCLA I met my wife.”

It was actually another woman – a girlfriend who lived in Los Angeles – that brought Lebow out west.

“I came to UCLA for one woman, and I ended up meeting and marrying another. We met in a Middle English class. Gradually, we became a couple.”

The woman in that class was Katherine Eileen Fitzpatrick ’47, M.A. ’49, who became Eileen Lebow in 1951. They were married for 70 years, until she passed away in 2022.

Lebow went to UCLA on the GI Bill; between that and his job as a teaching assistant for freshman English, he was practically swimming in money.

“I was wealthy. I was making $240 a month.”

The future couple earned their graduate degrees in English, both studying with the great scholars Lilly Bess Campbell and William Matthews, about whom Lebow shared an anecdote.

“He was a professor in Middle English whom I still remember very fondly. He was so good. He was an expert in the early development of the English language.

“He alternated — one year he taught Anglo-Saxon poetry, and the prerequisite was Anglo-Saxon. The next year he taught Chaucer. One year, we realized we were going to miss the Chaucer course because he was teaching Anglo-Saxon.

“When registration came, nobody signed up for Anglo-Saxon poetry. So we all went to the first session. He looked surprised. We explained we weren’t there for Anglo-Saxon poetry, but we realized nobody had signed up and we were going to miss the seminar. We asked if he would give it to us anyway.

“He said yes, but we had to find people to take it for credit, and we would do it at his house. It was excellent. One session was on Chaucer and politics, another on Chaucer and religion. It was wonderful.”

After completing his studies, in 1950, Lebow began a 30-year career in public service, starting with 12 years in the Social Security Administration.

In 1955, Lebow became a public information officer in the Central Office of the Social Security Administration, responsible for developing public information programs for organizations and groups. During that time, he developed programs for migrant and domestic workers, local and state employees, veterans and others, and also developed the first adult subject reading materials for use by farm workers with low literacy skills. Because of the demand for the materials, he adapted these materials for use in urban reading programs.

In 1962, Lebow moved on to the U.S. Public Health Service, where he worked until 1981, serving in various roles throughout the organization. He became a public information officer with the Office of the Surgeon General and in 1965 was the principal spokesman as the PHS oversaw the integration of the nation's health facilities to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prior to the advent of Medicare.

Responding to a wish by the Secretary of the Department to give positive messages for pregnant women, he conceived of and organized the Healthy Mothers — Healthy Babies national coalition together with the March of Dimes, the Salvation Army, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The Coalition eventually grew to more than 70 national organizations cooperating for better health outcomes for the nation's children with chapters in all 50 states.

He also conceived of and helped organize the first Surgeon General's Workshop on Maternal and Infant Health which brought together some 70-80 experts from around the country to develop a plan to improve maternal and infant health.

During his federal career he served on the staff of ten White House or national conferences including those on aging, children and youth, narcotics and drug abuse, and medical costs.

After retiring from government service, Lebow became the director of public information for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, working for the organization for 10 years. After retiring from the College, he received an outstanding service award — the first time it had been given to a non-physician.

In addition to authoring several articles for periodicals, Lebow is the author of two novels and a memoir: "The Fruit of a Poisonous Tree," the story of politics and abortion set in the years after the overturn of Roe vs. Wade; "Breaking the Ninth," a murder mystery with a novel twist; and “A Civil Servant: My Life with Bureaucracy," his account of federal service and the excellent people with whom he worked.

The Lebows have three children, Ellen (Gaskill), of Ocracoke, North Carolina; Edward, of Tempe, Arizona; and Sarah (Tolson), of Williamsburg, Virginia; five grandchildren and three great grandchildren, all of whom will be celebrating the landmark birthday of a truly unique man.  The UCLA Alumni Association, on behalf of the University, sends its fondest regards, congratulations and best wishes.