ALAN STOREY
The campus community expressed gratitude for Mrs. Morgan’s support at the naming ceremony for Audrey B. Morgan Hall and with a standing ovation at the 2009 Scholarship Night dinner.
child was expected to work to help support the family. Education was not a priority, yet Mrs. Morgan had a deep thirst for knowledge and dreamed of someday going to college. It was a dream she never expected to fulfill. When she was 17, her family moved to a new town and allowed her to stay behind with Orlin and Mae Harper, parents of one of her friends, to complete her senior year of high school. The Harpers soon grew to think of their young guest as a second daughter and, despite being poor themselves, wanted to give her the same opportunity that they were sacrificing to give to their own two children – a college education. Through Mr. Harper’s connections within the Methodist church, young Audrey was offered a working scholarship at Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky. From there, she continued her education at Georgia State University, where she worked toward a degree in business management. The Harper’s son, George, attended Berry College. At age 30, Mrs. Morgan and her husband, Jack, were offered what she calls “the career opportunity of a lifetime” and went into
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business with her sister, Dr. Bobbie Bailey. Together they built a highly successful Atlanta-based air conditioning compressor business, Our-Way, Inc. The company’s core business was providing re-manufactured commercial compressors to large commercial applications such as grocery stores, hotels, schools, office buildings and even the International Space Station. It became a major supplier to Carrier Corporation and was sold to Carrier in 2001. At the time of the sale, Our-Way employed more than 350 people and had annual sales of more than $45 million. “With a lot of hard work by everyone, our business was very successful,” Mrs. Morgan said. “And this success opened many doors of opportunity for my family and me, including forming the Audrey and Jack Morgan Foundation. My family has been greatly blessed, and this is our way of sharing these blessings with others.” Through their foundation, the Morgans have provided help to disadvantaged children by supporting agencies dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty and giving children a fair chance at life. They also continued their ongoing support of college scholarships, both to individuals and through endowed funds at colleges and universities. “We chose to support education because it has the power to significantly transform lives,” Mrs. Morgan said. “My college experience made a profound impact on my life. Because of what that scholarship meant to me, I vowed that if I was ever able, I would help others experience their dream.” She has kept that vow.
“Audrey Morgan understands deeply the value and dream of education,” Berry President Stephen R. Briggs stated. “Others sacrificed to provide her with the opportunity for an education, and she is now choosing to invest in the young people who will lead our communities in the years to come.” Keeping the gate open Mrs. Morgan had been to Berry only once – in 1952 to attend George Harper’s graduation – before coming in 2001 to establish the Mae and Orlin Harper Endowed Scholarship to honor her “second family.” In 2004, the foundation endowed the Audrey B. Morgan Scholarship for business majors, and in 2006 Mrs. Morgan joined Berry’s Board of Visitors. Mrs. Morgan’s most recent gift inaugurates a new family of scholarships that is rooted in the richness of Berry’s history. Gate of Opportunity Scholarships will allow hardworking students with financial need the chance to complete their Berry education without debt, in much the same way that students did throughout Berry’s earliest years. (Please see President’s Essay on page 10.) “As our relationships at Berry grew, we fell more and more in love with the school, its mission and its people,” Mrs. Morgan said. “When we began to think about the legacy we wanted to leave through our foundation, we thought again of Berry ... its wonderful and rich history, its mission which embodies the values we believe in, and because of all of the fine people associated with the college, people who we know will keep the ‘Gate of Opportunity’ open for generations to come.” B