Barry Ezell Morton Army Ltc Us Ret., Ph.D.

Retired Army officer and educator, Berry Ezell Morton LTC Ret, PhD, died at home in San Antonio, Texas; on July 9, 2009 at age 93. Dr. Morton was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas on July 28, 1915. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and later attended and graduated from Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri in 1937. Following college he began a career in education by taking a teaching position in Pattonville, Missouri. The events of WWII accelerated a long courtship of his college sweetheart and he married Florence Puckett on August 15, 1943. He entered the Army and attended OCS later serving in the Pacific Theatre as a lieutenant and captain of infantry. Following the war he returned to school and completed a doctorate degree in industrial arts at the University of Missouri. He next took a position on the faculty of Indiana State University, in Terre Haute, Indiana where he stayed until retirement while raising a family of five children and pursuing many other interests. During this time he stayed in the Army Reserve and ultimately retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1975. Following his professorial career he worked seven years overseas as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, while simultaneously operating a farm raising crops, horses and cattle. He continued these various farming activities into his late 80's when declining health and age required a move to San Antonio to be closer to health care and family. In retirement he enjoyed woodworking, politics, securities investing, model railroading, and his many grandchildren and great grandchildren. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, his five children, his 11 grandchildren, and his 8 great grandchildren. His family wrote "Father was a true prototype of the Greatest Generation. He was cast in the depression, forged in the war, lived with an independence, courage, honesty and resolution that have strengthened and guided us all." He will be missed by many.