From the Corvallis Gazette Times - January 26, 2001

Frank C. Morris III

Feb.14, 1947 - Jan. 24, 2001

Frank Conway Morris III died Wednesday at his parents' home in Corvallis of lymphoma.  He was 53.

Born in Pocatello, Idaho, he moved with his parents to Oregon in September 1948, attended public schools in Corvallis and graduated from Corvallis High School in 1965.  He was a four-year letterman on the cross-country team and was on the track team as a senior, specializing in the mile and half-mile.  He skied the giant slalom and downhill as a junior skier on the Bend Skyliners ski team at Mount Bachelor.  He attended both Oregon State University and the University of Oregon and ran on the OSU cross-country team.

Ten years out of high school, he won the first Denver Mile High Marathon, after training with his friend and mentor, Frank Shorter**.  He also won other races in his age group in Colorado.

He served four years in the Coast Guard, making three trips to Antarctica on the icebreaker Glacier and assisting a scientific team studying pesticide pollution in Weddell seals.  He was employed in Boulder, Colorado, with Celestial Seasonings tea company, crafting teas and herbal supplements.  He became well-known in the Boulder area, through newspaper articles, because of his battle with his illness.  He married Donna O'Daniel in 1980 in Boulder; they later divorced.

He enjoyed writing poetry and won a National Library of Poetry grand prize in 1995 and had studied screen-writing at the University of Colorado.  He also had studied Far East religions at the Naropa Institute in Boulder.

Survivors include his daughters, Shaun and Alyssa, both of Indiana; parents, Frank and Lesley Morris of Corvallis; and brothers, Bruce of Bend and Craig of Tucson, Arizona.

A memorial service will be held later in Boulder.  DeMoss-Durdan Garden Chapel is in charge of local arrangements.

Editor's Notes

** Frank Shorter won the Gold medal in the Marathon at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Dr. Morris sent along the following note with Frank's obituary:  "His [Frank's] two daughters now live in Tucson AZ with their mother.  Son Craig sees them often there.  I was down in Tucson for Alyssa's wedding in late August [2009].