Marion Lou Morris

Her ripples live on and on.

After traveling to hundreds of countries, states, and parks; hosting dozens of house guests over the years from all over the world; volunteering for global causes in social justice and environmental preservation; playing and coordinating music in her church for decades; nurturing, coaching, and loving an amazing family into adulthood; teaching high school science and math; then later volunteering as an environmental educator for years, Marion L. Morris, 93, of Ann Arbor and Saline, MI, beloved friend, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, and great grandmother, passed away peacefully in her sleep on August 29th, 2025.

Marion entered the world in Oshawa, Ontario in 1932, child of Oscar and Edna (Love) Nowlin, who shortly moved the family back to Flint, Michigan where Marion grew up, and her younger sister, Julia, who survives her, was born. Her older brother, Paul shared piano lessons with Marion for many years; the two played at social events at church, family gatherings and parties, solidifying Marion’s musical foundation.

Marion played piano at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Ann Arbor for decades, helping to coordinate the musical programs for many of those years. At home, with her husband, Bob, Marion played recorders in weekly groups, and often accompanied them on the harpsichord Bob had built in the family’s garage. For a few years they played recorders with the Ann Arbor Recorder Society, and gave some lessons on recorder as well. Marion and Bob occasionally played recorder-harpsichord gigs at weddings and formal parties for several years. Back at home singing around the piano was a favorite pastime for the family as Marion played, usually a variety of musical, show, folk, holiday and protest songs.

Marion also had a creative streak. When inspiration struck, she would pen a poem or lyrics to a piece of music. She wrote new lyrics to dozens of hymns and holiday songs which in later years she collected in a binder. Many are played and sung at the Church of the Good Shepherd still. In addition, Marion loved to tell the little stories of family life. About 2022, she lamented that when she passed nobody would tell the family stories, so she texted them to her son, Mike, and he wrote them up as a book of Marion’s life and times: Flowers in the Rain.

Marion loved the outdoors, but wasn’t a fan of playing sports nor gardening - camping and travel became her outdoor thing. The Girl Scouts taught her camping skills, which she passed on as “Skip” the camp counselor for several years. Later, camping became the go-to vacation for the growing family, with the crown jewel trip being seven weeks touring the American West in a van, with a big green tent and five kids. Together they explored from the Colorado mountains and high deserts of Arizona, to San Diego, Yosemite, San Francisco, the red woods, the Washington rain forests, Yellowstone geysers, in paddle boats, through storms, on hikes, and with pancakes at the lake with rainbows.

As epic as that was, Marion managed to top it with world travel from the 1980s until late in her retirement in the 2020s: Italy, Egypt, Kenya, Nepal, Costa Rica, Australia, Japan, the Amazon, Belize, Scotland, Panama, Norway, Thailand, Hawaii, Galapagos, Mexico… so many more; Over 60 countries, at least 45 states, and uncountable municipal, National and international Parks.

As much as Marion cherished travel, she also loved to share her experiences, and her home with others. For decades, she rented rooms to those who needed a leg up in life, at a very reasonable rate, in exchange for her house guests pitching in to help with common household chores like cleaning, cooking, light repairs, snow shoveling and the like. Marion loved getting to know a bit about her guests and sharing her life’s times with them while they got their lives back on track and moved on. Some guests stayed just a few weeks, a few stayed for years becoming life-long friends.

And she loved to pass on her passion for the outdoors and natural things to the next generations. After she formally retired, she volunteered as a docent at the UofM’s natural history museum and botanical gardens where she showed kids the variety of life from prehistoric times to living things - the kids’ favorite exhibit was often the one she passed around at the museum: fossilized dinosaur poop! Marion also helped the district naturalist for many years on elementary class field trips. Visiting local quarries and parks, kids loved the hands-on experience of pond leeches and the quiet January woods where, if you hold very still with your hand outstretched with bird seed, often you can have chickadees land to peck at the seeds.

Marion’s family was always central to her rich, fulfilling life. From raising babies through teens, and young adults, Marion’s love, nurturing (never hovering!), wisdom, and wit always guided their way. Marion subtly, yet deliberately, nudged each child to kindness and education at every stage of life. Many an irritated exchange between siblings was followed by the wisdom “you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” or “you can never really know what another is going through, don’t judge too harshly, try supporting them instead.” And by taking joy in hearing about goals (never requiring any in particular), plans, and dreams, and engaging people on subjects of interest (science, math, literature, just about anything), Marion helped everyone love learning. She taught, in her subtle way, that even though life can be hard, supporting one another, hardwork, and never giving up can bring positive change.

Marion was also passionate about social justice, and again she thought globally and acted locally. Some of her house guests were people who the system had not just failed, but outright trounced, and she gave them a pleasant, encouraging, accepting place to rebuild a life. Most of her donations over the years included organizations dedicated to changing a system of systemic injustice, and much of Marion’s work at the Church of the Good Shepherd similarly uplifted individuals while organizing for a better world.

Marion’s life included great plans and small acts of kindness. She delighted in doling out witty wisdom like “don’t sweat the small stuff, but it’s the little things that count.” Your car breaks down? Hey, it’s only a car (“small stuff”) - you’ll get through. But, the joy on the faces of children who just had birds eating out of their hand, or the adult going through a tough time who realizes that not everyone has given up on them, that they are not alone, that someone, like Marion, cares about them for who they are at this moment and who they will be as they move forward, simply by listening and caring enough to be there - it’s these little things in life “that count.” And Marion created thousands of moments that count.

As a pebble dropped in a still pond sends ripples in every direction, eventually reaching distant shores (a favorite metaphor of Marion’s), her life, having touched many hundreds of people, will continue to ripple through people, and through the years.

While Marion’s parents, Oscar and Edna Nowlin, and Marion’s brother, Paul Nowlin and her husband Kenneth Robert (Bob) Morris predeceased her, she leaves a legacy of thousands of touched souls, including innumerable students and friends, plus the families of Bob’s extended family (siblings David, Lillian, Donald, and Earl) and Marion’s own family: sister Julia Brown and her childrens’ families; Marion’s daughter Pam’s (who passed in ‘92) families (husband Ron Payne and their daughters Junita and Crystina and her sons Jacob and Ben, and Ron and Pam’s son JD and his wife Jen and their daughter, Jade); bonus son Wayne Moore and his families; life-long friend Barb Higman; son Mike and his wife Julia (advocate, protector, organizer, nurturer: Marion often asked “what do people do who don’t have a Julia,” and “marrying Julia was the best thing Mike ever did”) and their daughters, Laura and Ellen with husband Richard and their children Nikolas and Kaylee; son Larry and his son Levi and his wife, Sonya; daughter Evelyn with husband Todd and daughters Reesey (with husband Bevan and two boys Maverick and Rohwan) and Emma; daughter Sylvia with husband Dan and children Robert and Tina; and daughter Cheryl with fiance Brad and Cheryl’s sons Jason and Thomas. So many stories, so many lives, so many families; all influenced and nurtured by the foundation Marion helped provide.

Marion’s pebble ripples live on. And on and on.

And on.

In 2021, Marion wrote a poem where she explored leaving this world titled “Life Lessons from a Leaf”

…

Will I feel peace and a sense of release when my days on earth are done?

I’ll have to leave the people I love, many a special one.

I’ll miss the children to whom I gave birth, I’ll miss all the beauty I find on this earth

But Jesus will be there to help me along, so I won’t go crying - I’ll go with a song,

My feelings are mixed, but I think I’m okay. All of you come and join me one day.

Marion composed a Goodbye song she often taught her fellow worldwide travelers as the tours concluded. To the tune of Amazing Grace:

Goodbye

The time has come to say goodbye

We’re very glad we came

We’ve seen and done so many things

We’ll never be the same

A bit of me will go with you, a bit of you with me

Our lives are now forever linked in pleasant memory

A celebration of Marion’s life is being planned for 2 PM October 25th, 2025 at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 2145 Independence blvd, Ann Arbor MI. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of ACLU (aclumich.org), Planned Parenthood (plannedparenthood.org),or Wilmington Ten Foundation for Social Justice (wilmtenfoundation.org).