Frank R. “Rocky” Morris Jr
COLUMBUS - Frank Rockwell Morris Jr. died on May 14, 2024 after a long, happy life, his family at his side. He was 94 years old.
Frank – or Rocky as he was fondly called – was an accomplished and dedicated lawyer, a passionate lover of the outdoors, a devoted husband, father and fearless leader to his four children, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
He was born in Jackson, Michigan to Frank R. Morris and Marian Russell Morris on July 1, 1929. His education began in the local one-room schoolhouse – the Sharp Park School in Jackson. He attended The Lawrenceville School, where he was a hurdler on the track team and raced in the 1947 Track and Field Championships at Madison Square Garden. Prior to his freshman year at Yale University, Rocky took a gap year during which he worked for the Jackson-based manufacturer, Sparks-withington Co. (later Sparton Corp.). There he was elected union representative by fellow members of the United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW-CIO). When Rocky graduated from Yale in 1952 he was awarded scholastic honors and the U.S. Navy ROTC’S top award, the Raynham Townsend sword.
Rocky married the love of his life, Molly Richardson Morris, in June, 1953. The two would be married 58 years. After a three-year stint in the Navy, Rocky graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan Law School in 1957. Rocky and Molly moved to Columbus, Ohio where Rocky became a partner at the firm that would become Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur and the couple raised their four children.
Rocky was a tireless and dedicated attorney. He was known to others at Porter Wright for his reliability and “consummate professionalism,” and was an inspiration to younger attorneys who appreciated, as one of his colleagues put it “your down to earth, big city practice.” He specialized in corporate and business law, representing public companies, family-owned businesses and nonprofit organizations in a variety of transactions including mergers and acquisitions and one of the first hostile bank takeovers.
Rocky also took statewide and national leadership roles in his field. When the Ohio Savings and Loan Guarantee Fund collapsed during the mid-1980s savings and loan crisis, he represented the state of Ohio, leading a legal team through uncharted territory and negotiating the sale of Home State Savings Bank, which had been shuttered. During that period, he was also chairman of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section, editor of The Business Lawyer and chairman of the association’s Committee on Corporate Laws and Committee on Nonprofit Corporations. He was instrumental in drafting many provisions of the Model Business and Nonprofit Corporation Acts and the laws governing Ohio corporations. In addition, he was a member of the Legal Advisory Committee to the Board of Governors of the New York Stock Exchange.
Rocky valued diversity in both the workplace and society writ large. He worked to expand employment opportunities for women and people of color and he advocated for diversity in the American Bar Association, the Ohio Bar Association, his law firm and the organizations to which he belonged.
Leadership was a theme throughout Rocky’s life. He also served on numerous community boards. He was president of the Board of Trustees of Columbus Academy and of Rocky Fork Hunt and Country Club. He was chairman of the Trinity Episcopal Church endowment fund. He was president of the Rotary Club of Columbus.
When Rocky was not working, he was exploring, which made family life thrilling. There was not an adventure he would shy away from –whether it was scuba diving with his children at Groton Long Point, bird hunting with Molly and his beloved Brittany Spaniels or taking three-week backpacking trips through the Wind River mountains in Wyoming. Rocky, with Molly at his side, planned seven trips through mountainous wilderness areas where there were no trails and few people. He led his family across boulder fields and over mountains, on wild river crossings, and through thick underbrush. Since the trips were often three weeks long – too long to carry adequate food supplies - his family would have to bushwhack to a designated pickup spot where a food resupply would be dropped by helicopter.
Rocky loved to fly fish – in the mountains of Montana and Wyoming, in Canada, at the Castalia Trout Club, but especially in the place he loved most – the Au Sable River in Grayling Michigan. From a young age, he enjoyed nothing more than his time “up North,” casting dry flies in pursuit of brookies and browns. After a long day of fishing, he loved nothing more than to float on his back along the current of the “Whirlpool” upstream from the family cabin.
Rocky encouraged his children and grandchildren to have their own wild life adventures too. He taught them at early ages how to camp and drive on the dusty backroads of Northern Michigan. He led them into the Michigan woods to teach them how to navigate home alone via his famous bushwhacking method. He taught them how to hook, clean and fry a fish. He gave them nightly piggyback rides. He encouraged his children and grandchildren to have fulfilling careers in fields they genuinely loved. One became a veterinarian, another a pilot, another a financial analyst-turned fire fighter - a surgeon, a professional writer, a physical therapist, a journalist, dogged fundraiser, music producer, art dealer, businesswoman, two scholars and a policy crusader on Capitol Hill.
Rocky loved to sing, even though he rarely hit the right note. His tone deafness didn’t deter him from singing with gusto on Sundays at Trinity Church – much to the chagrin of his children and grandchildren. He was such a stalwart Michigander that he hung a prominent maize and blue blanket from an upstairs window on the Big Game day - annoying his children to no end. He loved to tease. He loved to laugh. And he really loved cookies.
Rocky was humble, unpretentious and kind to everybody. He was genuinely interested in all kinds of people. He was amazingly open-minded, one of his grandchildren recalls, so much so that he changed his political party late in life.
Rocky struggled with dementia in his later years. Though he gradually lost his memory, he retained his good manners and sense of humor. That made him a staff favorite at Kensington Place, the retirement community where he lived out his final years.
He is survived by four children: Betsy Morris of San Rafael, CA, Marian Burns of Columbus, OH, John Morris, of Stonington, CT and Lucy Crotty of Saratoga Springs, NY; two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Molly Morris, and two sisters, Mary Ann Hitt and Fanny Mattson. A Memorial Service will be held at 2 PM on Thursday, June 6, 2024 at Trinity Episcopal Church, 125 East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215 with a reception to follow at the Rocky Fork Hunt and Country Club, 5189 Clark State Rd, Gahanna, OH 43230.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made in Rocky’s name to Anglers of the Au Sable River, PO Box 200, Grayling MI, 49738 (www.ausableanglers.org), Trinity Episcopal Church, 125 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215 (www.trinitycolumbus.org) or Green Lawn Cemetery, 1000 Greenlawn Ave., Columbus, OH 43223 (www.greenlawncolumbus. org), Please visit www.schoedinger.com to share memories and condolences. Funeral arrangements entrusted to SCHOEDINGER MIDTOWN.