E.A. "Jerry" Morris Jr.

E.A. (Jerry) Morris Jr. AIA emeritus passed away on December 2, 2021 at the age of 95 due to an age-related illness. He left this world to join his wife of 73 years, Betty, who passed away six months prior, on June 2nd. He was a dedicated husband, father, grandfather, and friend to many. Jerry was an Architect who worked for Page Sutherland Page, then entered private practice, doing residential design work for notables in and around Austin. And finally, he was an Architect for The University of Texas at Austin where he designed buildings at campuses around the State until retirement.

He was the first of 5 children born to E.A. and Florence Morris, who were educators in Altus, Arkansas. Jerry’s father was a high school principal and coach, and his mother was a teacher. His parents were well known and respected by the community. As a child during the Great Depression, Jerry typically made his toys. In the early 1930s he was fascinated with airplanes. He learned to draw and build model aircraft and fly them from various high places like the attic window or hayloft of the barn. His parents noticed his aptitude for drawing and music, so they provided him with art materials and eventually violin lessons. He was also an athlete, running track and playing basketball. When he was a young man, a church in Garland, Arkansas invited him to play his violin in a duet with an attractive young pianist (Betty) during an Easter service. The performance was well received, and the young musicians became close friends. He enjoyed delicious Sunday dinners with her family thereafter.

Jerry graduated from high school and attended the University of Arkansas. He joined the Aviation Cadet Reserve program at the age of 17 while waiting to be called to serve in the military, with hopes of being a pilot. He was called to duty in 1944, and the Air Force assigned him to a B17 squadron in the 305 Bomber Group, 8th Air Force. By the time he was deployed, the war was ending, and the military would not provide him pilot training. Instead, he served in Germany as part of the occupational forces. He was a nonsmoker, so he saved his military-issued cigarettes and traded them for a beautiful German-made violin. After two years of active duty, he came home and married Betty, his piano-playing sweetheart.

His marriage to Betty was blessed by the residents of their hometown, Garland, Arkansas and was somewhat foretold when they first saw each other as children. Jerry would often recollect that he was infatuated with Betty throughout his childhood, but he thought she was too young to be his playmate or girlfriend. Betty remembered him as being too attractive and out of reach for being her boyfriend. If not for the duet at church, they might never have married.

As a couple, Betty and Jerry traveled to Norman, Oklahoma where Jerry studied at the University of Oklahoma School of Architecture. He played violin in the Texarkana symphony and worked part time as a fire fighter. After their second child, they moved to Austin, Texas where he passed his exam for Board Certification by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In his spare time, he built two classic runabout boats, using only simple hand tools. In that era, he and his family enjoyed the calm waters of Lake Austin, picnicking on its vast unoccupied shores. They enjoyed swimming, fishing, and the clean, serene environment of the lake. But sometimes he would turn heads by roaring up the lake at a top speed of more than 40 MPH. He once entered his homemade boat in a race from Austin to Bastrop on the Colorado River before construction of the Longhorn Dam.

In the 1960s Jerry enrolled his young son in the YMCA’s Indian Guide program, a father-and-son program that sought to instill the merits of Native American culture in children through monthly camping, education, storytelling and crafts, while emphasizing father-and-son relationships. The program was impressionable to his young son, who grew up and enrolled his own child in the program in the late 1990s. As a grandfather in the 1990s, Jerry attended every campout with his grandson’s tribe, helping to keep the little ones safe and supplying wood for the campfires.

He was proud of his daughter, a gymnast, UT graduate, and teacher who had a life’s dream of owning horses. So he purchased a small house with property suitable for keeping horses and built horse barns for her. In later years when she purchased a larger property, he built a barn and feeding stall for her horses on that property as well.

During the 1970s Jerry got involved in the fitness movement and took up jogging. He trained for the Texas Relays Masters’ Mile, an event for faculty and staff at The University of Texas at Austin. He vowed to one day run a complete marathon. He fulfilled this goal in 1986, at the age of sixty.

As he approached retirement, Jerry returned to his passion for flying. He obtained a pilot’s license and began building ultralight airplanes. He built a Weedhopper and assembled several Quicksilver MX planes, and then a Fisher 101. He made a propeller from maple wood, using basic shop tools, incorporating the proper length and pitch appropriate for his airplane. He flew the plane with his homemade prop several times, the last time having to make an emergency landing shortly after take off due to a broken drive belt on his aircraft motor. He immediately powered down the engine and shut off the fuel supply, then banked the plane over to approach a clear pasture and made a dead-stick landing. The spectacle of the crippled-aircraft landing caught the attention of a herd of cattle who grazed their way over to the craft. For concern that his “audience” might chew up his prized prop, he unbolted it and hauled it out of the area on his shoulder, after staking and securing the plane with tie lines. As he was seen walking down the road with a propeller on his shoulder, someone stopped and offered him a ride. Since he had not bothered to tell Betty, she was shocked to receive a phone call from the land owner, who traced Jerry through the license plate on his vehicle. He asked her why Mr. Morris had landed an airplane in his pasture. In turn, Jerry was shocked to find out that Betty already knew about it when he came home.

After becoming a grandfather he reduced his flying hours to enjoy time with his beloved grandson, Taylor, and he resumed his boat building hobby. He spent many nights with his son and grandson camping, canoeing, and power boating on the Highland Lakes. He built a small race boat, a cajun pirogue, and restored a ‘60s vintage wooden runabout. He was active in the Texas Chapter of the Antique Outboard Motor Club (AOMC) where he bought, sold and traded antique outboards of many different makes. Toward end of life, he had scores of motors to trade back into the club.

Jerry was a talented person who enjoyed life. Most of all, he was a dear husband, father, and grandfather who was loved for who he was and for all that he did. He was preceded in death by his parents, sister Mary McCafferty, brother Josh Morris, and nephew Greg Morris. He is survived by his sister Jane Burr, brother Quintus Morris, daughter, Angie Morris, son Alan Morris, daughter in-law Karen Morris, grandson Taylor Morris, nieces Jeanie Robinson and Coleen Monreal, nephews Jonathon Burr, and Norman Burr.

The family is appreciative of the devoted and loving care provided by caregivers Vickie Eason, Tanette Hedge, Virginia Caldwell, and Miles, the Caregiver Dog.

Visitation will be held on December 16, 2021 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home at 3125 N. Lamar, Austin, Texas. A chapel service at A.O. Smith Funeral Home will be held followed by interment at Lakeside Cemetery in Stamps, Arkansas.