Morris “Morry” Casso, Massachusetts’ oldest living man and the state’s last surviving World War II veteran at the time of his death, died peacefully on November 16, 2025, at Brightview Senior Living in Canton. He was 108, ranking as the 15th oldest man in the United States.
Born January 28, 1917, in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood to Russian Jewish immigrants Sadie and David Casso, Morry was the youngest of four siblings—sisters Bessie and Shirley, and brother Sam. Growing up in a close-knit community, he graduated from Roxbury Memorial High School for Boys in 1934. He joined the family business, Casson Brothers dry cleaning and tailoring shop in Boston, stepping up during his father’s illness and running it until his retirement in 1982 at age 65. The shop served notable clients like former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and author John Updike.
Morry’s sense of duty shone brightest during World War II. Enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1942 shortly after Pearl Harbor, he trained at Fort Devens before specializing in the Signal Corps at Chicago’s Lee De Forest Laboratories, mastering Audion Vacuum Tube technology for secure radio signals. Deployed to the China-Burma-India Theater via a grueling 20-day Liberty Ship voyage to North Africa, through the Suez Canal to Bombay, and onward to New Delhi, his unit established critical frequency channels for Army Air Corps aircraft amid treacherous terrain. He learned basic Hindustani, visited a leper colony on furlough, and chronicled his adventures with photographs and humorous captions.
Honorably discharged in early 1946, Morry returned home a decorated hero.A lifelong volunteer and advocate, Morry served as a Massachusetts Ombudsman for nursing home residents, spent nearly two decades visiting patients three times a week at New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton, and held leadership roles in the Knights of Pythias, Sharon Men’s Club, and B’nai B’rith, where he was once president…