Valery L. Morris ’76

Valery Morris died unexpectedly of a heart attack May 2, 2014 at home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Raised in New Jersey, she graduated from New Milford High School. At Princeton, Valery studied biochemistry and graduated magna cum laude. She managed the marching band, assisted at The Daily Princetonian, and socialized at Dial Lodge and Charter Club. In 1980, Valery earned a medical degree from Columbia University and began her pediatric residency at Texas Children’s Hospital. She married Stuart Schaffer and settled in New York.

For more than 20 years, Valery practiced pediatric medicine in Dutchess and Westchester counties, N.Y., while publishing academic research on lead poisoning. In 2005, Valery decided to change careers to chemistry education and obtained a master’s degree from Hunter College. She became an assistant professor at Queens College, where she also had a laboratory researching the antioxidant resveratrol.

Valery was a wonderful artist and received a certificate in botanical drawing from the Bronx Botanical Garden. Her home is filled with watercolor paintings and drawings of flowers and plants. She also enjoyed running, biking, and swimming.

The class officers extend sympathy to Stuart; children Kira and Keith; and Valery’s sisters, Marjory Selig and Emily Goldman s’77.