Southern Illinois University - Obelisk Yearbook (Carbondale, IL)

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Betty Mitchell, assistant professor of English, remembered Morris as a problem-solver, planner anti builder. Mitchell said Morris personified the word tubiquitous, because his work extended beyond the campus to the entire southern Illinois community. Calling Morris a giant in higher education, Board of Trustees member, Ivan Elliott, said, itHe moved forward aggressively and seized all available opportunities? In SIUis first 75 years, almost 5,000 students received degrees, Elliott said. When Morris retired in 1970, over 7,000 degrees were conferred. ttThe seeds he planted grew with unprecedented rapidity into a broad professional school program? Elliott said. ttOnly now do we realize how far ahead he planned? The statue of Morris, placed in the Hall of Presidents in the library hear- ing his name, was unveiled by Mor- News ris, widow Dorothy, son Peter and grandsons Brett and Trevor. Addressing the 500 people at the dedication ceremony, Peter Morris said, ttWe dedicate this statue as a symbol for a symbol. This becomes a symbol for the university that was developed for the people? The one-and-a-quarter lifesize statue was sculpted by Fredda Bril- liant, an internationally known artist who has sculpted such people as Mahatma Gandhi, R. Buckminister Fuller and Pandit N ehru. Brilliant and her husband, SIU-C professor emeritus Herbert Marshall, were good friends of Delyte and Dorothy Morris. itI watched what he did for the uni- versity? Brilliant said in an inter- view prior to the unveiling. 01 never saw anybody so conscientious. To him this university was the world. And I thoughtrthere should be a sculpture of him one day? photo by Doug Janvrin 23

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A TRIBUTE TO Story By Joyce Vonderheide During his term as president of SIU-C from 1948 to 1970, Delyte W. Morris changed a small teachefs col- lege of 3,000 students into an interna- tionally known university of almost 24,000 students. He was man un- afraid to work and make his dreams for southern Illinois come true. Concerned with helping students, he promoted financial aid and stu- dent work programs and constructed buildings that were accessible to the physically handicapped. In honor of the late president, April 9, 1983 was set aside as a day of trib- ute. The University held an open house featuring campus tours, exhib- its and musical performances by sev- eral campus groups. Various people who worked with Morris during his tenure as SIU president reminisced about him before the highlight of the day, the unveiling of a bronze statue of Morris. 22 ttMorris took a crumbling brick and made a mansion, J ohn Lonergan, an arrival to SIU during the early years of Morris term, said. When Morris began, the faculty, staff and commu- nity were used to doing without. Mor- ris changed their ideas of the status quo and made them accept ideas of expansion. He struggled to get dormi- tories, water lines, police and fire departments and more buildings and services. Lonergan was one of several people who recalls Morris bicycling across campus with his wife Dorothy and stopping to talk with students and staff. ttHe was a president who could be touched? Lonergan said. lTie was not in an ivory tower set aside from other people. He was part of the campus? Seymour Bryson, associate dean of the College of Human Resources, re- called Morrist warmth and his work photo by Doug Janvrin in attracting minority, international and disabled students to the university. ttAll of America has benefited from his willingness to work against odds, to build a university that would pro- vide an essential service to black Americans and other underrepre- sented groups? Bryson said. 1tSIU under Morris became known as an institution where you would be wel- comed and be given an opportunity to be judged not by the color of your skin but by your abilities? William Norwood, a 1959 SIU-C graduate, said that in the late 1950s only three other major universities other than SIU-C had more than a five percent black student population. Remembering Morris as a vision- ary, Norwood, a nineyear Board of Trustees member, said, ttHe left a spirit of lean do, He left a spirit of we together can accomplish anything? News

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Brilliant said Morris believed in giving everyone a second chance and wanted to make everyone happy. Next to Nehru, Brilliant said, til would rate him as one of the greatest men that Ilve known, and live met some very, very great men? Brilliant, who has lived in Carbon- dale for 14 years, began sculpting a clay model of the statue in April of 1969 in a small room in Woody Hall. She decided to put Morris in an academic gown and to end the statue just below the knees so the statue would remain timeless. Having Mor- ris in a suit or wearing shoes would make the statue old-fashioned in the future, she said. A specialist from New York then made a nine piece fiberglass cast of the sculpture, which was sent to the N oack Foundry in West Germany to be cast in bronze. Efforts to raise money for the statue began in 1974 and a contract between Brilliant and the SIU Foun- dation was signed in N ovember of 1982. Arrangements were then made to transport the sculpture, purchased through some 300 private contribu- tions to the Foundation, from West Germany to Carbondale. In Morris 1949 inaugural address, he said, tlBecause I believe in the moving power of education and the inherent and abiding worth of my own people, I accept the responsibili- ties of the complex and difficult burden you today place upon me, and look ahead with confidence. Morris remembered his responsibil- ity and the heroic-sized statue is a fit- ting remembrance for the great man who lived his dreams. 13 24 photo by Doug Janvnn photo by Doug Janvnn News