John Thomas Morgan

John Thomas Morgan, 91, who retired in 1998 from his position as a senior government relations officer with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), died at his home in Annapolis, Maryland on May 26, 2020 following a brief illness.

Professionally, after receiving a BA in journalism in 1955 from Marquette University in Milwaukee, his birthplace, John Thomas Morgan began his career as a reporter at a series of newspapers in Iowa and Wisconsin. In 1963 he relocated with his young family to the Washington area to take up a Congressional fellowship sponsored by the American Political Science Association, after which he was Executive Director of the Democratic Study Group in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he contributed to the passage of the Kennedy-Johnson legislative agenda. Following his time at DSG, he served in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare before joining CWA’s government relations department in 1969. Over his 30 years with CWA, on behalf of the industry’s workers he provided expert analysis, advice and testimony in countless Congressional hearings and other proceedings on telecommunications-related matters, including on international trade, in which he was particularly interested. While at CWA, he also established and served as Executive Director of the Joseph Anthony Beirne Foundation, in honor of CWA’s first president. To date the Foundation has provided some 400 college scholarships for CWA members’ families.

Throughout his life, John Thomas Morgan was an active member of his community and an indefatigable and stalwart defender of the voiceless and powerless – seniors, impoverished, disabled, and minorities. As a young man, he enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard and later earned the rank of 1st Lieutenant, in charge of an infantry unit and later artillery. After moving to the Washington area, he and his wife Rita Ann Morgan (d. 1983) were among the co-founders of Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children in Montgomery County, Maryland, as well as a supporters of and volunteers for the cause of fair and affordable housing, including with Montgomery Housing Partnership, causes in which he remained active for the rest of his life. He had a lifelong personal as well as professional interest in local- and national-level Democratic politics, was active in the local Democratic Club and was passionately committed to voting rights. During the last 20 years of his life – until forced to step down at age 91 due to the COVID-19 restrictions – he served as a driver for Central Maryland Meals on Wheels, which honored him as 2015 Volunteer of the Year. Throughout his more than 20 years in Annapolis, John Thomas Morgan also was an active citizen of the Maritime Republic of Eastport, enthusiastically participating in and volunteering for its many charitable community activities, including the annual “international” Tug of War. Living in Annapolis also let him indulge his bottomless love of sailing.

As a man, John Thomas Morgan was a paradox in many ways. He was softhearted yet had a backbone of steel when needed, especially when confronted with injustice or discrimination. He was a “liberal Democrat” yet a believer in fiscal discipline who could not abide government waste. He hated immoral wars while loving the men and women in uniform. Extremely frugal with himself, he was an unfailingly generous charitable giver. He was a lifelong practicing Catholic who maintained his own ideas on doctrine, and believed that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26). Stubbornly self-reliant, in his last years he greatly appreciated his wonderful caregiver and assistant, Gail Ritter, who helped him to live independently and in good health and spirits to the end.

An expert sailor, John Thomas Morgan literally charted his own course on the water and in life, developing many friendships in the Annapolis sailing community, particularly with his dear friend Virginia Nurco, whose vintage sailboat he co-captained for the twelve years before she left the area.

John Thomas Morgan was devoted to his family, and every few weeks until his death drove 100 miles round trip to visit his eldest son, who has autism. He is survived by his five children, Francis Morgan, Teresa Friedlander, Clarisse Morgan, Michael Morgan, and Thomas Morgan, and his grandchildren, Brian Morgan, Camden Dones, Kathleen Friedlander, Kelly Friedlander, Morgan Andersen, Maxwell Andersen, Mary Katherine Morgan, and Sarah Morgan.

The family will be holding a Live Stream Celebration of Life Service for Mr. Morgan on Sunday June 14, 2020 at 12 noon (Eastern Time).