After high school graduation, Merrill attended, and was in the first graduating class from, Black Hawk College. Then he was off to the University of Illinois where he joined the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity with fellow high school classmates Al Frankel and Gary Kahn. In March 1966, he joined the U.S. Air Force and spent three of his four years in Germany defending the Western Front during the Vietnam War. After the Air Force, he attended St. Ambrose College (now University) majoring in PE and history, earning a B.A. in education in 1970. In December of that year, Charlie Miller set Merrill and Jan Summers up on blind dates with two young ladies who worked at the Rock Island Arsenal. It was then that Merrill met Sheri Myers. When they married a year later, Merrill was a desk clerk at Davenport's Hotel Blackhawk, the site of their wedding and reception. Merrill and Sheri will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in December 2011. In 1973, their daughter Staci Kay was born followed by a son, Andrew William, in 1976. Staci died from Reye’s Syndrome in 1979. Following their loss, Sheri was instrumental in educating people in Iowa and Illinois about the illness, and she founded the Iowa-Illinois Chapter of the National Reye's Syndrome Foundation. Sheri left her job at the Arsenal for ten years after her children were born, and later returned part-time. Due to a scarcity of teaching opportunities when Merrill finished college, he took a position with Baker Liquor in Rock Island and became their Gallo Wine representative. This "temporary" job lasted for thirteen years. He worked in the wholesale liquor industry for a total of 25 years, retiring in 2006. In 1971, when Merrill and Sheri were dating, she talked him into coaching the first-ever girls' softball team from the Arsenal. That team beat every team in the Bi-county Philly League, mostly church teams. In 1980, one of Sheri's bosses at Augustana College needed coaching help with a team that played in the Rock Island Girls' Softball League (RIGSL). A career was born and, 31 years later, Merrill is still coaching RIGSL and has been involved on the board of directors for 27 years. This slow-pitch softball league serves approximately 250 girls between the ages of nine and eighteen every summer. Originally, the girls played on a diamond at the west end of Rock Island's 31st Avenue, a site where the city’s dead Dutch elm trees were dumped many years ago. The ground was constantly changing, and it was a never-ending job preparing it for the next softball season. For years, the group fought to maintain a safe field. Then, after extensive fund-raising efforts, the RIGSL was able to get a new diamond near Hauberg Civic Center in Rock Island. Merrill and Sheri were totally surprised when Mayor Pauley read the proclamation naming the new field Merrill Morris Field. What an honor! In 2003, former classmate Carla Hammerlund McGreevey and her husband, Tom, nominated Merrill for the Community Caring Conference Hero Award, which was presented to him by another former classmate, Bob Schroeder. In 2006, Merrill was honorary Citizen of the Year in the Rock Island Labor Day Parade. In addition to softball, Merrill's other favorite pastime is his toy soldier collection. He has about 5,000 toy soldiers housed in more than 15 cabinets in his home with most of the toy soldiers reflecting the American Civil War. Merrill attends a big show in Chicago every year, and another in San Antonio, to buy and sell toy soldiers. He also does this via eBay and says he has been doing business with a couple of guys for 25 or 30 years that he's never seen. One of Ginny Peyton's grandsons has become interested in collecting these and comes to visit Merrill and his collection occasionally. The Morris's son, Andrew, and his wife, Lisa, are graduates of the University of Texas at San Antonio. They reside in San Antonio where Andrew is a special education teacher and team leader at Knowlton Elementary School and Lisa is vice principal of Esparza Elementary. Their son, Andrew William, Jr., will be a year old in November. Merrill has no plans to retire from softball. He is now coaching girls whose mothers he coached and concedes, "Maybe I'll retire when I get to the granddaughters." The season is five months out of the year, but the board meets monthly all year. When Merrill was in the Air Force in Germany, he visited France, England, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. He says it would be nice to go back now because he would be able to see and do more. However, Sheri traveled for her work with the Arsenal for about 30 years, and they are content just to spend time occasionally in San Antonio with their son's family for now. Merrill is on the Class of '62 reunion committee. He's remained very good friends with Bill Miller, Harris Harmon, Jeff Missman, and Sharon and Mike Kerofsky from his class. If you would like to get in touch with Merrill, his email is motoys2@gmail.com.
|
