Charles Emory Morrison, 77, a retired topographer with the U.S. Geological Survey, died Nov. 27 at Fairfax Inova Hospital of complications from a heart attack 10 days earlier. He had lived in Vienna since 1962.
Mr. Morrison was born in Altoona, Pa. He enlisted in the Navy during World War II and spent two years in the Pacific on a wooden minesweeper, YMS-408. He returned home after the war and graduated from Penn State University in 1951 with a degree in forestry.
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He began a 33-year career with the Geological Survey that same year, making topographic maps and performing related surveys.
The early part of his Geological Survey career included field surveys in many of the states east of the Mississippi River, with assignments in the north during the summer and in the south during the winter.
He later was assigned to the research office in McLean and then to the Branch of International Activities, leading to assignments in Antarctica, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
He spent four summers in Antarctica, living in tents and sleeping bags on the ice cap. His work was in Marie Byrd Land, Ellsworth Land and the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and on one occasion he survived a helicopter crash.
He also took astronomic observations before the advent of Global Positioning System as part of a program to determine the direction and rate of movement of the 10,000-foot-thick ice at the geographic South Pole.
The National Science Foundation needed the information as it planned a new South Pole Scientific Station.
Mr. Morrison also conducted high-latitude operations on the first GPS equipment designated as field-portable -- 24 boxes weighing 1,800 pounds.
His work in Saudi Arabia was funded by the Saudi Kingdom in an effort to find mineral resources in the eastern part of the country. His work in Yemen was part of an Agency for International Development project intended to provide much-needed water resources to the nation.
After his retirement in 1984, Mr. Morrison became a volunteer guide at the Geological Survey's headquarters in Reston, taking school groups and others on tours of the building and explaining the agency's earth-science mission. He also volunteered for Meals on Wheels and made himself available to pick up and deliver hospital staff during snowstorms.
Most recently, he was a docent at the National Air and Space Museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly. He loved to tell about the people and groups he met while giving tours.
He was a member of various polar organizations, including the Antarctican Society and the Old Antarctic Explorers Association. Morrison Bluff in the Kohler Range in Marie Byrd Land was named in his honor by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. He also was an active member of USGS Topographic Retirees, a nationwide organization of former members of the service's mapping division.
Mr. Morrison was a member of Juniata (Pa.) United Methodist Church, Wesley United Methodist Church in Vienna and Masonic Hiram Lodge No. 616 in Altoona.
Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Dorothy Irene Morrison of Vienna; three children, Sandra Kay Gallagher of Capon Bridge, W.Va., Susan Kay Reynolds of Colonial Beach, Va., and Mark Alan Morrison of Edinburg, Va.; and three grandchildren.
