James A. Morrison Jr.

Born May 27, 1930, in Long Beach, CA, he was the eldest of three children born into a Navy family, the son of James A. Morrison and Ruth Morrison. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1952, but didn't make the Navy his career. Instead, after a short time with the Army Corps of Engineer, he became an aerospace engineer with Boeing Company, ultimately moving all over the U.S. for his work. He met his wife, LaVerne, in Washington D.C. and they were married Sept. 3, 1955, a joyful marriage that lasted more than 57 years until she passed away Dec. 4, 2012, at 83.

During their marriage he had assignments in Cape Canaveral in Cocoa, Fla.,Fort Walton Beach, Fla., New Orleans and Seattle, Wash. In 1966, they settled in Bellevue, Wash. In 1998, the couple moved to Las Vegas to be close to their only child, Jane Ann Morrison, a former journalist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

His favorite job with Boeing was working on the ground-to-air missile program to help protect the U.S. against enemy bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles. He ultimately became the lead engineer during BOMARC missile launches in Florida. He worked on the Minuteman (ICBM) Ground Test Program in Seattle. In 1964 he went to New Orleans to work on NASA's Saturn Apollo Program. For a while he was assigned to the Supersonic Transport Team, but when the program was canceled by the government, he moved into plant safety in the 747 manufacturing plant in Everett, Wash.

While still in Seattle in 1991 he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma but after a successful bone marrow transplant in 1993 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, he lived a rich life for another 33 years.

The Morrisons traveled the world, including a three-month world cruise to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. The couple enjoyed dancing, reading and travel together, sometimes including their freeloading daughter.

After LaVerne passed, he traveled on his own enjoying two more world cruises and several Asia cruises. He was a regular swimmer in Sun City Summerlin and enjoyed building and restoring ship models.

Burial will be at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1900 Veterans Memorial Drive in Boulder City on Monday, February 2, 2026, at 1:20pm. A celebration of life will be held later.

Donations in his memory could be made to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., Mail stop LG-400, Seattle, WA, 98109