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Morris served in the U.S. Congress from 1961 to 1991. Morris is the father of former Colorado Senator Mark Udall.
Burr graduated from high school in 1946 at a time when the government was looking for young men to replace the service men who had fought in World War II. Burr enlisted in the Army, trained in El Paso, Texas and was shipped out to the Philippines. With no medical training, he became a medic and served in the Philip- pines for one and a half years. Burr summarizes his military service as having gone in a Private and discharged a Private.
After discharge, Burr returned to Tucson and began his undergrad- uate years at the University of Ar- izona, which he chose because both Arizona State University and Northern Arizona were teacher col- leges and he did not want to be a teacher. Burr had no car and when the girls would ask him which fra- ternity he belonged to, he would tell them he was an “unaffiliated pedestrian.” Burr believes that not having a car was the reason he did not have a girlfriend in college.
Despite his belief that Arizona didn’t need another “damn Udall law- yer,” in 1952, he walked over to the University of Arizona Law School five days before school was set to begin. He told the Dean’s secretary,
“I’d kind of like to go to law school here.” She responded, “Give me $35 and you are in.” At that time, there was no formal application nor any testing. In fact, you only had to have attended three years of college.
Burr worked as a clerk at his broth- ers’ law firm during law school. Burr notes he was paid nothing and has not forgotten that his broth- ers never paid him. Burr graduat- ed from the University of Arizona Law School in 1954, yet took the bar exam in December 1953, prior to taking his January 1954 finals.
Just after graduating from law school, Burr met his wife to be, Al- ice. Alice had graduated from the University of Arizona and was em- ployed as a juvenile probation offi- cer. They were soon married. Sadly, after sixty-five of marriage, Alice, affectionately known as “Hurri- cane Alice,” passed away in 2020.
Alice and Burr had two daugh- ters, Linda and Laura. Laura is a highly skilled criminal defense attorney in Tucson, defending individuals facing serious prose- cution. Laura was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2017. Burr also has two grandchildren, Col- lette Udall and Kai Udall.
Throughout law school, Burr intended to join his two brothers in their law practice. But as graduation approached, his brothers told him he should find a job, as the brothers were leaving the private practice of law. Stewart was consid- ering running for Congress and Morris was planning to go to the Pima County Attorney’s Office. The next day, unexpectedly, Tom Chandler called Burr. Tom was one of the finest lawyers in Arizona, a Fellow and Regent of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Tom told Burr that he had heard Burr might need a job. Obviously, Burr’s brothers had reached out to Tom.
When Burr started practice there were less than one hundred lawyers in Tucson. In Burr’s first year of practice, he made it a practice to walk around on his noon hour to meet the other Tucson lawyers. Burr continued to meet and greet every new law- yerinTucsonforthenexttenyears,untilthenumberofnewlawyersgrewtoolarge.
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Burr started at $200 per month. He was admitted to the Arizona Bar two months later and his pay was raised to $250 per month. Burr recalls that he was probably overpaid. He has been with the firm, now known as the Udall Law Firm, ever since. Burr found Tucson to have a very collegial bar; it was a pleasure to practice law there. Most of the lawyers had breakfast at the same Tucson restaurant nearly every morning. Every lawyer in Tucson knew the other lawyers’ spouses and families; in fact, they even knew their dogs.