Jim Morris is a take-charge kind of guy. That might explain why he became president of the Fred Lind Manor resident council within a year of moving there in March 1995. The position is clearly a good fit:: He is now serving his 10th consecutive term as council president.
"I love it here because they do everything for me and I have been able, in my own small way, to make quite a change in the environment here," he said.
Morris said that prior to his arrival at Fred Lind there was an adversarial tension between the council and the administration for the retirement home. Also, Morris, a dyed-in-the-wool Irishman who loves a joke, brought a light-hearted, positive attitude with him when he first walked through the door.
"The dining room was a morgue," Morris said. "Nobody ever laughed."
Well, Morris did, and, as the old saying goes, laugh and the world laughs with you. They not only laughed with him, they made him president of the resident council.
Not everyone would see that as desirable, but Morris did, and still does. He also serves as the Fred Lind Manor representative to the Resident Councils of Washington organization, a lobbying and political action organization for retirement homes statewide. He has gone through the various offices with the RCW and is now president of that body, too.
One of his jobs as president of the Fred Lind council is to line up speakers for the monthly resident meetings. He has not failed in 10 years. This year he has lined up different city department heads to discuss city policies and actions each month, except for next month when he has Congressman Jim McDermott on the program.
Morris, 88, grew up in the Bronx, New York City, attending first Regis High School, a Catholic school with free tuition, and then Fordham College, on practically no money. He worked in a federal school program (the National Youth Administration) 30 hours per month, at 50 cents per hour, to earn his college tuition. He also sang second tenor in the college glee club.
"That taught me many of the social graces," Morris explained. The glee club would perform at various Catholic girls' schools around New York City and afterwards the men would be guests at dinner and a dance. The group even performed at Carnegie Hall.
His singing talent has stayed with him. He has performed in the annual St. Joseph's Parish talent show for the past two years, knocking them dead with favorite Broadway show tunes.
After his 1938 graduation, Morris went to work for Phoenix Mutual Life, where he stayed until becoming an Army private in 1941. He trained in a medical battalion at Camp Lee, Va., but through lucky circumstances became one of three radio announcers for the camp radio station. He applied for and was accepted in officers' candidate school and when he finished that, he was posted to ... Miami?
"I couldn't believe it," Morris said, shaking his head in wonder. He worked in military warehouses there and California until the end of the war, taking a bit of time off in Miami to marry Evelyn Martin, a registered nurse from Appomattox, Va., whom he met at Camp Lee.
They were married 52 years, raising two daughters and a son on 17th Avenue East on Capitol Hill. Evelyn died in 1994, and Morris moved to Fred Lind Manor shortly afterwards.
Morris got out of the Army in 1946 but stayed in the Army Reserve, retiring as a major after five years of active duty and 15 years in the reserve. In the meantime, he landed back in New York City and, again, by a lucky stroke became the executive secretary for main Lions Club in Manhattan. Part of his job there was arranging speakers. He arranged to attract not only the Postmaster General of the United States, but also Helen Keller.
"My job there was similar to the presidency here," he said.
One thing led to another, and they were on their way to Seattle. Jim became an executive with Federal Old Line Insurance Company; Evelyn became a nurse at Swedish Hospital, where she worked for many years in the cancer wards. They settled in for the long run in Seattle, living the entire time on Capitol Hill, just a few blocks from the Fred Lind Manor. Their daughters, Jean Frances and Joan Maureen Morris (who died in 2002), attended Holy Names Academy. Son James Robert Morris Junior attended Seattle Prep.
Now Morris stays busy shaking things up and keeping them organized at the Fred Lind Manor.
"You have to have a positive attitude towards life," Morris said.
And he does.
Freelance writer Korte Brueckmann lives on Capitol Hill and can be reached at editor@capitol hilltims.com.[[In-content Ad]]
