Have You Met?

Many people should be grateful that Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus didn’t accept Morris Price, Jr. when he ran away to the circus at age 7.  Many aspects of public policy and philanthropy would be different if they had. 

Morris’ career spans higher education, public policy and philanthropy with groups like, DU, Daniels Fund, Congresswoman Diana DeGette, Gill Foundation, City Year Denver and the Colorado Trust. 

Morris, and his twin sister Marlene were born on the 9th floor, west wing of Fitzsimons hospital.  He knows that, because they both worked there one summer as interns.  

Both his mom and dad were from Louisiana.  His dad wanted to be a pharmacist, but ended up enlisting in the Air Force after acing the exam. 

His dad, and hence his family had postings in Colorado, South Dakota, California, Kansas, Spain, Germany and South Carolina.  After the last posting in South Carolina, the family decided that Colorado would be the best place to settle down. 

Being an Air Force brat was an interesting time for Morris.  “Since the dad’s all wore the same thing and all home were the same, there wasn’t the social pressures that young people experience off of military bases.  The great thing about all the bases was that there is order, a structure and a commitment to the community.  The teachers had officer rank and as such there wasn’t much disobedience by students or talking back by parents to the teachers.  It was quite a change to come back to American schools,” Morris recalled. 

Morris remembers one instance that made a lasting impression.  His dad came home one time and said  “Here’s a discussion that we will never have to have again.  Your grades in math are not good, my commanding officer gets a copy of your report card and I was called in for a lecture .  You need to know that your performance affects our family.”  (Families that had problems at home could get their their dads demoted or moved.) Morris improved in math after that and didn’t have that issue again, although later in life he realized that he had had dyslexia. 

Morris was close to his parents and his siblings.  He remembers his dad saying, “There’s not a thing you can do, that you can’t come from home.  Lose your job, come home. Get in trouble….come home. Something happened to your money… come home.”  That was a great mental safety net. 

When it came time to choose a college, Velva, his older sister got a full ride to Colorado College.  Marlene chose CU in Boulder.  Marlene and Morris decided that they wouldn’t go to the same school.  Morris chose CSU in Ft. Collins.   Marlene and I called each other 3 or 4 times a day during our first month of their first semester away at college.  Dad got the first bill and it was $500.  His dad was livid. 

Although his dad had admonished Morris that his job was to be “a student and not a leader”, as Morris puts it, “I was asked not to return after my first year. I had spent too much time doing extracurricular activities and it affected my grades.” 

Morris continued, “My parents said that I could live at home but that I would have to work and go to school.  From 5 – 9 am I washed dishes at the enlisted men’s club.  Then I went to community college in the afternoon and worked in Sears Automotive from 6-9pm.  After a year, I had saved a lot of money, and my parents said I could return to CSU as long as I maintained a B average, which I did.” 

“After I applied the discipline to my studies, I did return to participating in student activities.  I served as President of the Congress of African American Students.  I learned a lot about mobilizing when we brought in Jesse Jackson to speak. We filled Moby Gym but it took a lot of work.  I realized that you can’t take things for granted.” 

“With my degree in communication I thought it would be great to go into TV.  But TV was changing and it looked like my desire to be the next Bryant Gumbel probably wasn’t going to happen. A friend of my mom’s hired me at the Stapleton airport Budget Rent A Car.  It was interesting but not a calling.  I called my mentor at CSU and she referenced becoming a college recruiter.  

I didn’t know what a college recruiter did.  I had worked in admissions and financial aid office it was one reason I had great college experience.  I was homecoming king and very active in student government and activities.  I applied to several locations I got an offer from San Francisco State, but ended up accepting an offer from Wabash College.  Wabash was in a small town in Indiana with 16,000 people and only 800 students.  The motto for Wabash, was “We t