By all measures, our dear friend and colleague Richard “Dick” Morey lived a full and meaningful life.
Passing away on the evening of Wednesday, January 31st, Dick’s 79 year purposeful journey came to a peaceful end in the presence of his loving wife Darlene, son Scott, and best friend Jim Sullivan at his Magician Lake home following a courageous yearlong battle with cancer.
To say to say that Dick will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him represents a profound understatement. As amicable and as “down to earth” as anyone could possibly be, Dick’s life was essentially defined by his love and devotion to family and friends, and by a remarkable history of dedicating significant portions of his time, energy, and talents to giving back to his community and working to improve the lives of others. In spite of having lived an extraordinarily productive and accomplishment filled life, our friend Dick always maintained his humble demeanor and held true to the core values and lessons learned as a young man growing up in the southwest Michigan community of Niles.
A member of the Niles High School Class of 1956, Dick resumed his academic career at Michigan State University where he majored in marketing and played trumpet in the Spartan marching band. Graduating in 1961 with a newly minted four year degree, Dick soon began a highly successful twenty six year career as a regional marketing and sales manager for Amoco. Marrying the love of his life Darlene in the fall of 1966, the couple would raise daughter Stacy and son Scott in Saginaw, Michigan and Crete, Illinois, and would move to their lakefront home on Magician Lake in Cass County following his retirement from Amoco.
The opportunity to retire at a relatively young age would offer Dick the chance to pursuit a second rewarding career as a school teacher, coach, golf instructor, and mentor as well as the time to get involved in the Magician Lake Improvement Association where he served as Treasurer for many years. Initially becoming involved with Michigan Lake and Stream Associations in 2004 as a regional representative, Dick would eventually become a member of the Board of Directors. Assuming the Presidency of ML&SA in 2014 following the death of our good friend Sue Vomish, Dick’s unique “never micromanage” leadership style and ability to work with and inspire others played a major role in ML&SA achieving a period defined by peace, prosperity, growth, and stability.
Thank you Dick! Your love, friendship, fun loving spirit, and immense contributions to our organization and to our lives will not be soon forgotten!
Darlene Morey would like everyone to know that a public “celebration of Dick’s life” will be held this spring on an as of yet to be determined date in Dowagiac. We will inform the readers of our monthly newsletter of the exact date, time, and location of the event when it becomes available in the coming weeks.