IN MEMORIAM: HERB MORGAN

WRITTEN BY R-MA PRESIDENT BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID C. WESLEY, USAF, RET

who love R-MA and are in their seventh, eight, or ninth decade of life.

They’ve done a ton and regret almost nothing. They’re proud of their service to the Republic and they love their families and enjoy telling tales of their time on The Hill. You get to appreciate their unique brand of humor, learn what kind of beverages they prefer, or how they like their coffee. And then, one day, they don’t answer the phone, or fail to respond to an email or a text or two. You wait a few days, hear nothing, and reach out again. Our great Advancement team might walk down the hall to show you an obituary, or you might find their voicemail box is full and not accepting any more messages. That last indicator is how I concluded that my dear friend Herb Morgan had gone to be with the Man Upstairs.

“This mailbox is full and cannot accept any more messages...”

When I was interviewing for this incredible job, one of the most sobering things Major General Hobgood told me was that, if I was hired, I would go to a lot of funerals. My vague memory is that he told me he’d been to more than 60 solemn ceremonies in his 16 years as Academy President. I filed that unpleasant thought away and came to see, as the years went by, that he was sadly accurate about these important events. What I did not perceive then and have slowly come to realize in recent years is how I would come to learn of the death of an alumnus. You get to know great people in this job - heroes and regular folksbut very nearly all of them genuinely great people,

In my first year at R-MA, they sent me over to Arlington to meet Mr. Herb Morgan, a generous donor to R-MA and by all accounts, “just a nice guy who’s easy to talk to.” And so he was. My first genuine fundraising visit was a drive over to his lovely home and then lunch at one of his favorite places to eat lunch, the Washington Golf and Country Club. We quickly discovered we’d both served interesting years in the Air Force and we’d both become attorneys. We both married small-town girls, each of whom became the one true love of our lives. In so many ways, Herb Morgan and I were quite similar…only he was better at just about everything he ever did.

Herbert Norris Morgan was born on 10 September 1929, in Jackson, TN and spent his formative years there. In high school, he ran a gas station his father helped him purchase when he graduated and he later became the town’s only motorcycle police officer (see his dashing photo below). He married his high school sweetheart Joyce, enlisted in the Air Force, and became an agent with the Office of Special Investigations while serving in Germany in the 1950’s. Herb must have been pretty good at his job, because he was soon sent back to Headquarters OSI in Washington, DC, where his talents were noticed by his commander, who asked the Dean of American University’s law school to allow Senior Airman Morgan “to take a few classes at the law school” at no charge. When Senior Airman Morgan’s grades placed him near the top of his class, the law school Dean called OSI HQ back saying, “We’d probably better find a way to have these classes count toward a degree.” provided scholarship funds to allow some of our most successful students to graduate from the Academy. I had hoped to bring Herb to campus for a parade in his honor, but COVID delayed that and, when his health began to fade a bit, we shelved the idea. But I continued to drive over and visit every few months, enjoying the breadth of experience and remarkable humor that Herb brought to every aspect of his life.

One of our best visits included the photo at the top of this article, showing Herb on the day he received his honorary diploma from R-MA. Those days were spent sharing tales of our time in the Air Force. I would say, how long were you in the Air Force, Herb? He would invariably respond, “Eight years, two months, fourteen days, thirteen hours, and twenty minutes!”

One of my favorite stories was how Herb got out of the Air Force. As he neared completion of law school, Herb’s wife wrote a check at the Bolling Commissary for groceries. By a quirk of timing, the check was presented for payment on the same day as Herb’s military pay was deposited, but the influx of funds came at the end of the banking day and, using the technology of the time, the check “bounced”.

Though he had not a single undergraduate class on his resume, Herb Morgan completed law school, was honorably discharged from the Air Force and, for reasons I’ll explain below, began what became one of the most successful real estate law practices in the history of the Nation’s capital.

Herb loved flying and, while practicing law, was able to purchase and learn to fly his own jet, which he flew around the globe and on many other fascinating trips with friends. When Arnold Palmer surrendered his jet pilot certificate in the 1990’s, Herb Morgan became America’s oldest jet pilot and received a signed photo from the Golden Bear, acknowledging his impressive new status.

Introduced to R-MA’s flight program by R-MA alumnus Rick Frisbie ‘56, Mr. Morgan’s generosity was instrumental to ensuring we have capable Cessna aircraft for our students to fly and, in recent years, he

Mrs. Morgan received a curt letter from the Bolling base commander, censuring her for “financial irresponsibility” and Senior Airman Morgan, decided that he was not willing to abide a bureaucracy so quick to call his wife a deadbeat. He was eligible to leave the Service and did so immediately. The Air Force lost a newly minted enlisted man with a law degree, and so began one of the most successful legal careers in Northern Virginia history.

Herb passed away on April 11, 2023, leaving me with a rich library of memories and a deep respect for a man who loved to fly, loved his family, and missed his Joyce until the end. I will miss my afternoons with him. He was an incredible man, generous to a fault, and in so many ways, an American Original! God bless you, Herb…now you and Joyce can watch over us all.