Andrew Morgan

 

Andrew Morgan in action: Photos by Evelyn Seiden at the University of Miami. These three iconic images appear on page 116 of the 1978 Ibis Yearbook. 

I don't get enough opportunity to brag about my Uncle Andrew. He passed away in March of 2011 at age 89. It has only been in hindsight that I credit him as a significant mentor to me. I was most fortunate to have spent time with Andrew while I attended the University of Miami in pursuit of my own double major BA (Art and English) and MBA degrees. 

Andrew Morgan was president of the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) in the decade of the 1960s. Somewhere early 2014, I arranged to visit to KCAI with a a crew of docents from the Laumeier Sculpture Park in Saint Louis (I was co chair of the docents then). We had the pleasure of visiting Michael Wickerson's sculpture class and we got a a healthy tour of the campus. I was presented with a book authored by Milton S. Katz Ph. D. entitled The History of the Kansas City Art Institute, A Century of Excellence and Beyond (c) 2005. Chapter IV of that book devotes several pages to The Vision of Andrew W. Morgan, the 1960s. Katz credits my uncle with guiding the school to a respectable credibility for degree seeking college students. Andrew even hosted Mr. Walt Disney in 1963 so KCAI could bestow Walt with an honorary degree. Andrew announced he was leaving to return to teaching in the fall of 1970 just as the school was doubling its enrollment in the decade he was in charge. The students hosted a day long retirement party on campus for Andrew that included an Elephant ride, ticker tape confetti, bands and a helicopter ride. 

Andrew was heading to the University of Miami (UM) where he was Chairman of the Art Department and a member of the teaching faculty. He was persuasive enough to convince me that my interest in Graphic Design would be well served in Coral Gables, Florida. (It also became pretty clear to me that the weather would be more palatable than my other college consideration - Syracuse University.) So my brother and I enrolled as Freshmen at UM in 1974. 

Note: The board of governors at KCAI decided to recruit its next president from outside its own ranks and thereby considered the recommendation of David Strout at the Rhode Island School of Design who once had Andrew as a student at Kenyon College. Strout maintained a friendship with Andrew (who was artist and chairman at the art department at the University of Missippi). Strout recommented Andrew as the right guy for the job.

     

Above: South Truro and Two Fine Horses by Andrew Morgan in 1955