Sidney Duane Morris, Son, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Brother, Uncle and Friend passed away after a short illness on December 27, 2022 at the age of 90, while on a cross-country road trip to Florida.
Sid was born September 9, 1932 to William Wesley and Evelyn LaGrace (Nielson) Morris. He was the fourth of 10 children and grew up in Hinckley and Delta, Utah. Sid joined the Navy at 18 and served during the Korean War on aircraft carriers as a signal man. While stationed in Boston, he met and married Ruth Howley, and later divorced. They had two sons, Bill and Shane. After leaving the Navy, Sid studied engineering in college in Boston and began his career in 1958 as a mechanical engineer. He met his second wife, JoAnn Heiner Wright while they were both working at Thiokol in Brigham City, Utah. JoAnn had two sons from her previous marriage, Kim and Scott. Together Sid and JoAnn had one son, Wesley Cole.
For about half of Sid’s engineering career, he worked as a “Job Shopper,” where he was hired for specialized design and drafting contracts lasting 3 to 6 months each. Needless to say, he and the family moved a LOT, from one end of the country to the other and back again. He worked on projects such as designing missiles, aircraft frames, air transported military field hospitals, radar domes for aircraft, and military camouflage netting. He worked for companies in the aerospace industry such as GE, Lockheed, Hercules, and Boeing. Sid spent the later part of his career working for the Brunswick Corporation in manufacturing plants first as General Manager in Wolf Point, Montana and then as Director of Operations in DeLand, Florida.
After retiring in 1995, Sid and JoAnn lived in St. Augustine and DeLand, Florida, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City. In 2016, he and JoAnn moved ‘back home’ to Delta where they spent their last years living along the beautiful and peaceful shores of the Res (Gunnison Reservoir) surrounded by his loving family and friends.
Sid was an avid reader of early American and WWII history. He loved to travel, play the harmonica, the guitar and sing, have a daily Scotch or two, play golf, and have a good pedicure, which he greatly appreciated.
More than anything (and like his brothers) Sid loved to argue about anything and everything that had to do with politics with anyone who was willing, or unwilling. Sid and his (favorite) niece Shellie (Lewis) Dutson spent hours discussing politics and their differing views. Sid would straighten Shellie out by writing an editorial to be published in the local paper. Never fail, after he wrote it, someone or someones would approach Shellie and say, “I loved your uncle’s editorial” to which she would answer, “of course you did.”
Sid was a great storyteller with an incredibly detailed memory. He loved to tell stories about his time in the Navy. He was always telling stories about his work, where he would include dates, places and the names of every person involved, even if it was 70 years ago. He also loved to tell stories about when he grew up on ‘the farm’ in Hinckley and Delta.
Sid took many drives with family members and showed them who lived where, and what fields he worked in as a boy. He had a very special bond with NaRae and Ward Peterson, of Hinckley, who he spent a lot of time with during his teenage years. He had a genuine interest in everyone’s stories and was a good listener. He made you feel like he cared about you.
Survivors include his sons Bill (Pat) Coppola, Shane (Marcia) Morris, Kim Wright, Scott (Cecelia) Wright; sister Dorothy (Raymond) Robinson; grand-children, great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.
Preceding him in death were his parents; wife JoAnn; son Wesley Cole Morris; brothers: Joe, Larry, Jim, John, Don, Gary, and Ed Morris; and sister Sherri (Leon) Lewis.
A celebration of life will be held in Delta, Utah, in the future when the weather is warm because Sid always hated the cold and loved the warm sun.