My Uncle David - Rest in Peace

Obituary: David William Morgan

By The Family on January 21, 2014 in Latest News, Lead News, News, Obituaries · (Darien Times)

David William Morgan, a resident of Darien for over 32 years who was active in town politics and community service, died peacefully at home surrounded by his wife Mary Louise and children Mallory and 

David Jr. on January 20, 2014. He was 85.

He had been battling Primary CNS Lymphoma for 22 months.

Mr. Morgan was born on July 6, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the youngest of four boys born to Dr. John Benjamin Morgan, a urologist, and Bertha Amersbach Morgan. He grew up in the Lakewood section of Cleveland and attended St. Ignatius and Lakewood high schools. After spending two years at Wilmington College of Ohio, where in 1948 he was among the eight founding members of the Tau Kappa Beta fraternity, he transferred to La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he received a B.A. in Sociology and Philosophy.

He moved to Los Angeles, California in the late 1950’s where he was the Director of Public Relations and Publicity for Catalina Swimwear. After declining the opportunity to be introduced to Marilyn Monroe at a party shortly before her death, he vowed never to miss another chance to talk to any interesting public person in the fields of entertainment, sports, business or politics. He developed the personal credo to “never ask for an autograph” and approach them as equals. From that point on he had over a hundred random and interesting encounters with many of the 20th Century’s biggest names including Norman Rockwell, Martha Graham, Bing Crosby, Mother Theresa, Joe Louis, Judy Garland and President John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Morgan always valued his time in California for the deep and lasting friendships he made with the eight men who shared a beachfront house with him in Santa Monica. In a speech written 20 years later he noted, “It is important that you try to keep the friends you have and reach out to as many new people as you can. Years ago we did not call it networking, we just liked the people we met and spent a lot of time with each other. Do not sink into a shell, you’ll need everyone you ever knew someday. However, it’s more fun if you like them!”

In 1968 he moved to New York City to work in sales for Harper’s Bazaar and Seventeen Magazine. He left publishing for television to become Director of Retail and Co- Operative Advertising at CBS in 1975, before founding Morgan Communications in 1978 where he independently produced sports features for television and radio. From 2000 to 2006 he represented the San Francisco 49ers at the NFL Draft in New York City, and was a frequent attendee at the National Football Foundation’s annual College Football Hall of Fame dinner.

He married his wife Mary Louise Fitzsimmons in 1971, and decided to relocate his family to Darien in the early 1980’s based on an excellent afternoon he enjoyed watching a Darien High School Football game. He would remain an enthusiastic fan and booster of Darien athletic teams both before and after his children Mallory and David Jr. moved through the school system.

Happy summers were spent in Spring Lake, New Jersey where he was a member of the Spring Lake Golf & Country Club and a longtime member of the Spring Lake Bath & Tennis Club. Locally Mr. Morgan volunteered as a YMCA Indian Guides Chief, Flag Football coach, Babe Ruth Baseball umpire and coach. He was a supporter and active member of the Cherry Lawn Community Gardens, and a member of the Piedmont Club.

He became involved with the Democratic Party in Darien during Christine Niedermeier’s campaign for U.S. Congress in 1986, and went on to volunteer for the successful campaigns of First Selectmen Ann Mandel, Fred Sammis, and Evonne Kein. In the early 1990’s he ran for election as Constable of the Town of Darien and held the post for twenty years through 2013.

In 2001, spurred on by a development threat to the Cherry Lawn Community Gardens and inadequate noise barriers along I-95. Mr. Morgan stepped away from the Democratic Party to run for First Selectman as an Independent, winning 9% of the vote and dwarfing all other Independent candidates for First Selectman in Fairfield County that year who failed to crack more than 1.5% of the vote. His campaign was lauded at the time for its innovative use of television commercials. He ran again as in Independent in 2003, and returned to the Democratic fold as a candidate and office holder for Constable and party volunteer. He was a frequent participant of the Thursday morning “Kitchen Cabinet” public affairs discussion group at the Sugar Bowl.
He is perhaps best remembered in Darien for the charity “Bikes For Bed-Stuy” he founded in 1986 and ran for 13 years. In 1985 Mr. Morgan was inspired by an article in the New York Daily News about NYPD officer who purchased a bicycle for a seven year old boy in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn after the child reported that his new bicycle had been ripped out of his hands and stolen on his first ride.
Touched both by officer’s generosity and the stark disparity between the affluence and safety of Darien and Bedford-Stuyvesant in the 1980’s, Morgan came up with an idea to collect used bicycles throughout the year in Connecticut, repair them, and gift them to needy children at the 81st Precinct Christmas party. What started as 60 used and repaired bicycles in the first year grew at its high point to over 200 bicycles being distributed to inner-city children each year. Although Morgan concluded his involvement with the group in 1999, people continued to call his home for years afterward to ask if they could donate their bikes.
In addition to his political and philanthropic interests, Mr. Morgan had lifelong passion for the visual arts — particularly in the areas of illustration and photography. His primary hobby was following collegiate football, professional football, collegiate basketball and his beloved Cleveland Indians. David Morgan was a dedicated and beloved husband and father.

The family will receive friends at the Edward Lawrence Funeral Home, 2119 Post Road, Darien on Friday, January 24, 2014 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM., and 7:00 to 9:00PM. A Mass of Resurrection in Celebration of the life of David Morgan will be held at St. John Roman Catholic Church, 1986 Post Road, Darien on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 10:00 AM. Interment will follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Burke Rehabilitation Hospital – Outpatient Center. The Burke Rehabilitation Center, Attn: Development Office, 785
Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, New York 10605. www.burke.org/donate

Vin de Set 2014

Friday evening (January 3, 2014) at Vin de Set and Joe Mastroianni is once again playing host. He orders wine and invites conversation but never forgets to communicate important ground rules for AAF Advertising Award Judges. The ADDY Judges are Dan Barczak (Cincinnatti), Malvina Baker (NYC), Rick Riley (Cleveland) and Matt Horton (Minneapolis). Kristy Tucciarone and Wes Morgan round out the table for seven at the restaurant which has become something of a tradition over the past few years.

Dan is Creative Director at Hyperquake, a Brand Evolution Agency in Cincinnati. He has a design background. In another life he might have been a chef he says adding that early on he got shot down when he considered a Military career path (Marine Corps).

Malvina Baker is with Sterling Brands in New York. She surprised the group with a passion for surfing, an avocation that is difficult to pursue from her home base in Brooklyn, NY. She manages to get away to surf periodically and will be traveling to Puerto Rico in a couple of weeks.

Rick Riley is a copywriter turned creative director turned agency principal at MelamedRiley in Cleveland. He’s been thinking about a Children’s Book phonics based concept: part mistake (oops) and part zoo animals, Zoops would introduce children to creatures like the ChimpanZebra and KangaRooster.

Matt Horton of Morsekode in Minneapoplis would have stayed in radio as an on air personality if his early exposure to that career path introduced him to personalities who convinced him it was a bad way to make a living. So advertising, he reasons, (what his Dad did) seems a reasonable way to make a living. Matt is more than an ad guy though. His account of work for a non-profit called Imagine No Malaria dramatically illustrates how he thinks.   

Saturday is all business and start time at 8:00 a.m. at Anheuser Busch cafeteria where UMSL students and Ad Club officials Liz and Jaron have the work ready to view and the software ready to enter scoring. Joe prepared the group for the strategy of completing the review of hundreds of entries to minimize the impact of a Winter snowstorm heading for the Midwest. That being said, the judges came together late in the day with a good deal of consensus on what they saw as the best work. The winners will be announces in February during ADDY Week in St. Louis.  

Photos (top to bottom): Rick Riley, Matt Horton, Malvina Baker, Dan Barczak

ExecLink St. Louis Revisited

We  have come to know a lot of folks in the midst of one career crisis or another in the last few years. Gone are the days of the quick bounce backs for senior executives. With a background of nearly 30 years of progressive experience as account manager in advertising, leadership in corporate communications and marketing, I noticed our board struggling to make sense of it all. It’s no secret, the battlefield has changed. You are only as good as your last movie. That awesome list of career highlights that used to get you in the door and at the ground floor of negotiating your next career move isn’t matching up to the job description someone finally approved. Human Resources professionals aren’t in the mood to risk thinking outside the box. And networking, while still important, will not in and of itself land most of us at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy.

ExecLink St. Louis began in 2009 as an organization for senior level executives to network and retool for the new realities of the market. The original board members managed to forge a relationship with Washington University – St. Louis and schedule regular meetings with presentation/speakers ranging from the sales training to entrepreneurialism always with a senior level executive in mind as target audience. The organization has moved around to a variety of venues (i.e. Missouri Athletic Club, Maryville University, Webster University) and attracted over 600 people who signed up to be members. Meanwhile, the nature of the organization changed as members settled in to a variety of endeavors that may or may not have matched the  ambitious goals they originally set for themselves. It is becoming apparent to many members that their skills, while still in demand, are often best applied to pursuits very different than the niches inside of corporate conventions for which they had found comfortable career paths in the past.

So the ExecLink St. Louis board met over the holidays and made some decisions. The organization can and will change. We will move forward with our mission: Executives Helping Executives but with new leadership, a strategic vision and fewer/better programs.

Here are the actions of which our board is in agreement. A. formalize strategic plan (including leadership initiatives) B. execute fewer/better programs C. engage membership with two-way communication channels D. strengthen and reinforce our unique positioning E. leverage our experience.    

      

 

 

 

 

Mary Lawton Morgan, Theatrical Star

Mary Lawton Morgan in her mink coat in The Deadly Game (1964)

Mary Lawton Morgan, Theatrical Star

I was just eight years old when I saw my mom in a play at Lakewood Little Theater (now the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio). She appeared in The Deadly Game (1964). Her part was an important one but her appearance was at the end of the last act.  I remember her laughing and suggesting that the only reason she got the role was because she owned her own mink coat (which she wore in the show). Mom had been active in performing dramatic readings as a member or the Three Arts Club. I remember her rehearsing The Women in our living room. “Jungle Red Sylvia,” she read as her character had been to a manicurist at a salon in which the story revolves. I have since seen the 1939 movie The Women and read the play The Deadly Game. I can see why she was well cast in each.

Another movie helped me remember the plot of a play in which my mom appeared at LLT in 1964. The Best Man, of course, was a play before it was a movie starring Henry Fonda. Her next role at LLT was as star in Mary Mary in 1965 (Debbie Reynolds played Mary in the movie version). A few years later she was in Any Wednesday (1967) which was a comedy about marital infidelity.  Later she was in a play at LLT called What Did We Do Wrong? which was probably timely in 1968.

I remember mom preparing for her role in The Cactus Flower in 1970. She practiced the sort of sing-song-y phone reception her role called for as assistant to dentist Dr. Winston. “Doctor Winston’s Office,” she repeated as an efficient office manager. The role was played by Goldie Hawn in the movies.

Mom completed a Masters degree in Dramatic Arts at Case Western Reserve University in her early 40s and refocused her energies on directing. She was named director in residence at Clague Playhouse somewhere around 1970. In that role she would direct The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd; Man of LaMancha; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown and stay active in running the venue that seated fewer than 250 or so patrons a performance.

In 1977 mom returned to act at Lakewood Little Theater in Veronica’s Room. A role for which she was honored at best actress that season. (She had served as guest director for the play Gypsy at LLT but, I think, was happy to return to that stage.) She was Aunt Eller in Oklahoma at Lakewood Little Theater (later named the Beck Center). 

I saw my mom fill in for an actress who was sick once. Mom was director but was able to step-up like an under-study. She was a nun/school teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. It was impressive to see her ability to perform at the drop of the hat like that.   

Of course, mom was a supporter of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival (in fact, she was even invited to speak to a group about The Taming of the Shrew). Her talk was scholarly. She demonstrated her academic side. After all, she was now the holder of a Masters degree in Dramatic Arts. (A thesis paper on Othello was part of her coursework so she was a student of Shakespeare.). I was proud of my mom that day and so glad to be among the audience (with my dad). The event was staged outside the auditorium and dubbed the Rose & Crown Inn. (By the way an youngt actor by the name of Tom Hanks was earning his Actor's Equity card and was in that very production of The Taming of the Shrew,)

Somewhere around 1978 she played the part of Aunt Eller in Oklahoma. She was brave enough to even sing for that role. She also agreed to direct a production of West Side Story for St. Edward High School.  My parents started to spent more time in Key Biscayne, Florida and eventually moved there full time in 1985 when they sold their house at 15106 Edgewater Drive.    

Mom passed on in 2011. The wonderful people at The Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood dove in to the archives and recently shared some production stills from the Lakewood Little Theater period of which mom was so involved. (In addition to acting she was also a teacher in teen workshops/classes.)
Note: My brother Greg reminded me that mom also performed in Berea. My sister Lynn reminded me of mom directing a production of Laugh In at Wildwood.

Go John Caroll Blue Streaks!

In what was dubbed one of the most exciting and meaningful division III football games this season, the No. 1 Mount Union Purple Raiders narrowly defeated the No. 9 John Carroll Blue Streaks in front of a sell-out crowd of 8,104 at Mount Union Stadium, 42-34.

Both teams came into the game with undefeated records of 9-0, including 8-0 records in Ohio Athletic Conference play. The Blue Streaks and Purple Raiders also came into the game with the first and second ranked defenses in the nation, respectively. While the game didn't turn out to be a defensive showdown, it certainly lived up to the hype.

"Mount played very well, you have to give all the credit to them," said head coach Tom Arth. "I'm proud of our guys, I'm proud of the way they fought, I'm proud of the way they never gave up. They kept believing, but unfortunately we came up just a little bit short and that falls on me."
         
Myers, a Cleveland St. Ignatius alum, finished the game 31-56 with 451 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. The junior quarterback also showed tremendous poise throughout the game, yet acknowledged that there is room for improvement from this game.

With the loss, the Blue Streaks will not enter the postseason as OAC Champions, but will likely earn an at-large berth. While players and coaches alike expressed disappointment, they also understand that the road doesn't end here.
         
"I've been telling you guys all year, it's a special group," said Arth. "Nothing has changed. They're still a special group. These guys have hearts like you wouldn't believe. They're confident, they have a lot of believe in themselves … They're going to come back, they're going to bounce back and this game's going to make us stronger. I believe that with my whole heart."

Thomas Edward Arth (b. May 11, 1981), coach and former player, currently the head coach of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He was head football coach at John Carroll University from 2013 to 2016. Arth was QB at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland and at John Carroll University, he started for four years at quarterback, and set 18 John Carroll football records.

Brand Audit

Brand Recipe for Success

 

Just as any healthy firm reviews its financial health in terms of value, it is critical to audit your brand. Such an audit will not as well-defined as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) or the formal requirements of publicly traded companies. A thorough evaluation of your brand is necessary and requires a close examination of all ingredients. Here’s a recipe:       

Start with a pinch of Strategy - Look at your business, marketing plans, brand positioning, creative briefs (internal and agency) and media plans.

A generous amounts of Research - Positioning, brand asset studies, brand equity measurement (awareness, preference, usage, value, accessibility, relevance, differentiation, vitality, emotional connection, loyalty, associations, personality). Concept testing and customer recall & recognition. Mine big data in social media and inbound marketing for clues. Leverage research to better evaluate strategy. Carefully assess brand asset, equity, positioning research. Include qualitative and quantitative initiatives. This will help you deliver your unique flavor.

Season with external information - External forces will always have an impact on your brand. Review competitors’ press releases, advertising and promotion. Read industry analyst reports. Solicit and learn from customers, business partners, marketing vendor relationships, shareholders, investors, key customer segments/prospects, associations and trade groups.

A dash of Communications - Presentation will help to assure your brand is appetizing. Advertising and promotion materials; brand marketing elements: pricing, packaging, merchandising, distribution, direct marketing, sponsorships, flagship stores, etc.; public relations: press kits, press releases, sales collateral materials, internal communications, business cards, web site, employee training programs, employee orientation, manager training and sales force training.

Just a taste of Internal Ambassadors - Interview corporate officer, marketing employees, sales representatives, customer service personnel, front line customer contacts and general employees. These people are among the most critical brand ambassadors you have.

Human resources - The kitchen needs careful cooks with the ability to function as a team with a shared vision. The utensils of proper alignment might be organization charts, recruiting criteria, competencies/assessments, succession planning, resource allocation, systems/processes. The right people make all the difference in putting it all together.

Make sure you organize and manage all ingredients. You have what you need to assure optimal brand equity. Pay attention to components. They come together (stir, simmer, blend) for optimal value. Repeat as needed.

Amazing Grace

 

Bellefontaine Cemetery visit on November 8, 2013

87,000 souls are part of the legacy of this place in St. Louis and the mosaic it illustrates is a composition of American culture. Senators, Governors, Mayors, Steamboat Captains and Civil War Officers are among those who find their final resting place at Bellefontaine Cemetery, which was founded in 1849. It was the first rural cemetery back in the day. (It now enjoys an endowment of more than $90 Million. So it will be around for a while.)

Richard Lay, Vice President Customer Relations is happy to accommodate our group of docents from the Lauemeier Sculture Park with a guided tour that includes remarkable highlights. We visited the magnificent tomb of Adolphus Busch (which looks more like a cathedral than a burial plot). We visit the monument to General William Clark (of Lewis & Clark fame). The Wainwright Building downtown is an architectural treasure but Bellefontaine has a memorial to Wainwright that also has Louis Sullivan touches. Richard Lay assures us that the Lemp gravesite is not haunted. “Why would ghosts bother with this place? No-one to disturb, here,” he reasons.

Clearly, the story threats that weave their way through such a place are incredible and would indeed create a tapestry of our region and our nation.

 

Laumeier Docent Group at Lemp Tomb (l to r) : Front row, Jeanette Wamser, Tony Vonder Haar, Pamela Dern, Sari Frieden, Clara Coleman, Wes Morgan. Back row - Barb Flunker, Holly Goldfarb, Shelia Hoffmeister, Katy Mike Smaistrla, Maureen Jennings, Jahn Epstein, Ann Bauer, Marie Oberkirsch, Jennie Swanson

 

 

 

NOTES

 

The Wainwright building was commissioned by Ellis Wainwright, a St. Louis brewer and completed in the early 1890s. Wainwright needed office space to manage the St Louis Brewers Association. It was the second major commission for a tall building won by the Adler & Sullivan.

William Clark with Meriwether Lewis, from 1803 to 1806 led expedition across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States. He later served as governor of the Missouri Territory.

Colonel Adolphus Busch was the German-born co-founder of Anheuser-Busch with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. He died in 1913.