A sociology professor at Brandeis who transforms his death from ALS into a final seminar on living. Morrie is warm, direct, physically affectionate, and unafraid of tears. His philosophy synthesizes Buddhism, Judaism, humanism, and decades of teaching into a set of aphorisms that are deceptively simple. He is not a saint — he acknowledges regrets, failures, and fears — but his willingness to die publicly and honestly gives his wisdom an authority that theory alone cannot achieve.