He was the middle child, between his older sister, Holly, and his younger brother, Christopher. 

 

He grew up watching the architect supervising the construction of their beautiful new house. He felt later that this might have had a part in leading him to a future in architecture. 

 

When he was old enough, he created a business for himself mowing lawns. For entertainment he and his friends threw apples at cars with New York City number plates. He liked fiddling around with cars to make them go.

 

In 9th grade he was sent to the Woodstock Country School in Vermont. It was known as a "Progressive" school. The students were expected to participate in work jobs, from cleaning the barn to washing the dishes in the kitchen. He enjoyed being the boss of the kitchen. (He didn't get away with that after he was married.)

 

He enjoyed being the altar boy at the Episcopal Church in Woodstock. He liked the dozens of buttons on his garment and helping the priest with the wine. After moving to Waldoboro, he went regularly to St. Andrews church in Damariscotta. He designed the addition to the church. 

 

Probably the most memorable job he participated in at Woodstock was, under the supervision of an architect, turning a barn into a library.  

 

While he was at Woodstock his mother, who had MS, died and his father remarried, bringing two younger brothers, Oliver and Kirk, into the family.

 

After Woodstock he went to Colby College. After two years he realized that Colby was not the right place for him and he got a job working for an architectural  firm in New York City. This experience led to his decision to go to the University of Pennsylvania, well known for its architectural program.

 

While at Penn he met Sam Brooks from Lincoln, Mass. They had both flunked physics and were together in a class repeating it. That led to his meeting Sam's sister Susan, his future wife, who had just graduated from Radcliffe. That was in 1965.

 

He went back to Penn to learn to be an architect, she went to India in the Peace Corps to help people with their laying hens.  

 

When she came home they got married.

 

After he graduated from Penn, some old friends asked him to help supervise a house they were building on Vinalhaven, where she had grown up. This led to a job with Midcoast Construction in Camden, Maine. MC was building prefab houses and the owners often wanted changes made.

 

In 1974 he started his own firm in Camden. For several years he worked with developers who were building subsidized multifamily housing from the top to the bottom of Maine. There are between 60 and 70 housing complexes that he designed. Two in Waldoboro, one in Damariscotta, one in Warren. He enjoyed meeting people all over the state as he worked with planning boards and the neighbors of the potential projects.

 

 

In 1994 John added a construction management arm to the firm, Morris Construction Services(MCS). That meant they could see a project through from beginning to end, with no financial surprises for the owners. 

 

 

For many years he was on the Waldoboro Planning Board, most of those years as chairman. He also served on the board of the Waldo Theatre and supported its revival.

 

One night reading the Rockland Courier Gazette Susan saw an ad for "House, barn, 1,500 feet on a lake, another 1,500 on a trout stream, $28,000." It was in North Waldoboro. They went to take a look, loved it and were able to borrow $500 from Susan's father for a down payment. They went to the bank in Waldoboro for a loan. They were denied, told that they should be able to buy that whole side of town for that. They went to the Camden bank and got a loan. They didn't know they had bought a blueberry farm, now called Storer Mountain Farm.

 

The house was very nice, but needed some improvements. Josh was born in 1973 and learned to use a hammer at an early age. Sam was born in 1975 and loved to listen to music. They had an indoor sandbox and an outdoor sand pile. There were cows and horses up at the barn. If the cow was taking a break from milking they would ask where the milk they were supposed to drink came from. They were told, Giraffe milk or whatever. Then they would drink it.

 

When the boys were old enough John took the family to the Snow Bowl in Camden to ski. When they were older he bought a condominium at Sugarloaf. This led to lots of trips to Sugarloaf, often with friends.

 

John loved waterskiing on Damariscotta lake and taking the boat out to Eagle Island to visit friends.

 

Sam, shortly after leading a group of teenagers on a bike trip from Seattle to New Jersey, was in the backseat of a car that crashed into a tree. The two people in front were fine. Sam had a broken back and is paralyzed from the waist down.

 

Sam was flat on his back in a hospital near Los Angeles for 7 months. John flew out every other weekend to be with him. Susan flew out other times. John was not particularly good at milking the cow while she was gone.  

 

When Sam finally got out of the hospital and was able to go skiing again, this time sit skiing, the whole family met every year for many years in Telluride, Colorado. Telluride is known for its beautiful high mountain trails for people of all abilities. It is also known for its Adaptive Ski Program. John rented a sit ski for Sam and in three days Sam was able to ski from close to the top of the mountain. In time Sam bought his own sit ski.

 

When Josh and Sam were in school the family would always celebrate Columbus Day by hiking up Bigelow Mountain, sometimes with a friend from school, usually with a dog. 

 

John and Susan took off on an excursion every year, finding wonderful places to hike and camp in the mountains of the west. They explored places in Chile and in Ecuador, where Josh was working. Of course Josh invited them to walk up a volcano with him. 

 

One of the last trips they took was to the Azores, beautiful and green, cows being milked in the fields, when it was still brown in Maine. 

 

John's father, with his third wife, Tana Hoban, moved to Paris shortly after he married her. After Tana died John helped support his father, who lived to be 100.

 

John loved his morning walks with the dogs over the hill to the pond, every morning, rain or snow or sunshine.

 

John died just as the blueberries behind the stonewall at the edge of the road were beginning to turn blue. 

 

He leaves behind Susan, his wife of 59 years; his sons Samuel Warren Morris and Joshua Brooks Morris and wife Morgan Dorsey, and their daughters Fiona Jane, 6, and Margaux Anne, 2. 

 

A celebration of his life will be held on Saturday, August 29, at 10 a.m., at the Broad Bay Congregational Church, in Waldoboro.

 

Donations in his memory may be made to the Waldo Theatre.