In addition to his scientific achievements he served as professor and astronomy director for the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin and was the managing editor for George Hale's Astrophysical Journal.
[2] Along with Donald Osterbrock and Stewart Sharpless, he used distance measurements of O and B type stars to show the existence of spiral arms in the Milky Way Galaxy.
From 1947 to 1952, Morgan was managing editor of the Astrophysical Journal,[2][3] a publication originally started by George Hale to promote scientific cooperation between the world's astrophysicists.
Morgan graduated from the University of Chicago in 1927 with a Bachelor of Science degree[4] on the basis of transfer credits from Washington and Lee combined with his subsequent courses at Yerkes Observatory.
[2] One of his early graduate students in stellar classification was Nancy Grace Roman, who went on to become NASA's first Chief of Astronomy.