It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of one of our brothers. Lee Eugene Morton II (Hotel '79), passed away at home on October 16th, with his family by his side. Mort had been battling brain cancer for the past year. He is survived by his wife Patty Decker Morton (Engineering BS'78, MS'79), 13-year-old son Michael, and 5-year-old daughter Marie. After graduating from Cornell, Mort rose to the rank of Captain in the Air Force as a B-52 pilot and also a T-37 instructor pilot. Since leaving the military, Mort had been flying as a commercial pilot for Federal Express where he was a DC-10 Captain selectee, scheduled to go to training in January of 2001.
Condolences can be sent to:
The Morton Family
10846 Forest Lake Court
Indianapolis, IN 46278
Patty has mentioned that people may send flower bulbs for her to plant in the woods this winter, so that when they bloom in the spring, they would be a reminder of Lee.
Contributions in Mort's memory can be made to:
Accelerate Brain Cancer Care
800 Airport Blvd., Suite 508
Burlingame, CA 94010
or
The St. Malachy Building Fund
St. Malachy Catholic Church
326 N. Greene Street
Brownsburg, IN 46112
Eulogy from Mort's funeral (delivered by Frank Koh '79):
When I think about Mort, the first thing that comes to mind is how everyone who knew him really liked him and really wanted to be his friend. In our fraternity house, we had a lot of different personalities and not everyone always got along with everyone else, but everyone loved Mort. It's not that he was overly considerate or sensitive - it was that no one could resist the Morton charisma. I feel proud and honored that he chose me to be a close friend.Women were especially susceptible to the Morton charm. Typically, a new fling would start with Mort coming home to Room 9 stating, "Frank, I think she's in love with me…" Things would progress nicely for the next few months. But eventually, Mort would get tired of being "idolized" and soon he would be on the hunt for the next fling… This continued throughout our Cornell years until finally, towards the end of our senior year, he fell in love with his "idol" - a lovely blond engineering student named Patty.
We shared a lot of great times in our years at Cornell. "Room 9 Parties" were always a wild scene - with the Grateful Dead blasting on the stereo, mobs of people drinking and partying, and Prof sitting on the couch studying Organic Chemistry. There were endless numbers of amazing Grateful Dead concerts, awesome skiing adventures, wild fraternity parties, road trips to out of the way places like Wells and Keuka Colleges, long nights carousing at the Chapter House, beautiful hikes down to the Gorge, and hours upon hours of time spent hanging out on the roof of our fraternity house overlooking the Ithaca valley, just staring up at the stars, discussing our dreams.
Well Mort, I know and I am thankful, that you have realized many of your dreams, probably more than you ever expected. And I know that you will live on forever in all of our dreams. We will never forget you.
by Michael Herrick, Matterform Media
