Morris, Leonard

MORRIS, BECK, MCGREGOR

Posted By: Lorelei Rusco (email)
Date: 6/6/2014 at 14:51:48

Morris, Leonard -
Funeral services for Leonard Morris, age 87, of Corning, who died Friday, February 1,
2008, at the Alegent Health Mercy Hospital, will be held Tuesday, February 5, 2008
at 10:30 a.m. at the United Methodist Church in Corning. Visitation will be Monday
from 3 to 7 with the family greeting friends from 5 to 7 at the funeral home.
Interment will be held in the Stringtown Cemetery with military rites accorded by the
Ourcq Post No. 117 of the Corning American Legion. Memorials can be given in
Leonard's name. Memories can be shared with the family at www.ritchiefuneralhome.
com. Arrangements were entrusted to Roland-Ritchie Funeral Home of Corning.
Leonard Morris was born near Sharpsburg in Taylor County, Iowa on December 29,
1920, the son of Charles and Mary (Beck) Morris. His family moved to a farm in Adams
County north of Lenox, where he attended a rural school and Lenox High School.
As a young man during the depression years, he picked fruit in the state of Washington
and followed the wheat harvest into Montana.
He married Jean McGregor on June 15, 1941, at her parent's farm home near
Prescott. Their children were Stephen, Nancy, and Philip.
Leonard farmed and raised purebred Chester White hogs, until he served on the naval
aircraft carrier, The Bunker Hill, in World War II.
After the war he and his brother Howard formed a partnership, Morris Brothers
Implement. They had a John Deere dealership and construction company in Corning.
They operated heavy equipment, building farm ponds and doing soil conservation
work of all kinds. Leonard took special pride in his part in developing the sites for the
Corning hospital, nursing home, elementary school, and municipal swimming pool.
Leonard was a member of the first Adams County Conservation Board which made
Lake Icaria a reality. He was a longtime member of the Land Improvement Contractors
of America, serving as the national president in 1965. Leonard was active in the
Democrat Party. He was a member of both the Stringtown Church and the Corning United
Methodist Church, serving in many ways. He was a Boy Scout Master at Prescott and
then Corning for many years, being chosen to receive the Silver Beaver award. His
creative storytelling was a skill he shared with family, friends, and all of those young
scouts. He was even able to keep his troops in their tents at night with his scary tales.
In his retirement years, he and his son Philip were partners in farming, and Leonard took
great pleasure in restoring a 1949 MT tractor with him in the off-season. He liked going
fishing and carving, but foremost, he was a "familyfirst" grandpa.
Leonard was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Howard; his son Stephen in
1986; daughter-in-law Mary Stewart; brother-in-law Henry Walker; and sister-in-law
Vivian Morris.
He is survived by his wife Jean Morris of Corning, daughter Nancy Morris of
Stringtown; son Philip Morris and wife LeAnn (Grundman) Morris of Lenox; two sisters,
Helen Swartz and husband Clark of Waterloo, Iowa; and Virginia Walker of Greeley,
Colorado; six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Lenox Time Table, Lenox, Iowa Wednesday February 6, 2008