The Fort Lewis College Foundation recently announced that it supplied more than $200,000 to create a scholarship in honor of Kenneth and Eula Mae Morris, a longtime Ignacio couple who passed away in 2016.
The Eula Mae and Kenneth L. Morris Scholarship will provide funding to help Ignacio High School students receive an education at Fort Lewis College.
“Kenneth and Eula Mae are an example of two people who understood the value of an education and how it can affect a person’s life,” said Dene Thomas, president of Fort Lewis College. “I wish I’d had the opportunity to thank them for their generosity, but I can promise that their investment in the lives of young people from Ignacio will be a credit to their name for years to come.”
Kenneth Morris passed away in May 2016. He graduated from Durango High School and served in the military before attending Colorado State University. After he graduated, he worked at and eventually took over the Economy Store in Ignacio until his retirement in 1989.
Eula Mae Morris, who passed about three months after her husband, worked as an elementary school teacher for 50 years, of which 42 were spent in Ignacio. She received the Colorado Teacher of the Year honor in 1989, taught piano and, according to her obituary published in The Durango Herald, had hundreds of teddy bears that were gifted to her over the years.
The couple lived at their Ignacio home, which Kenneth Morris built as a wedding present, for 60 years. Friends and family remember them having lived a simple life, with a passion for helping others.
For more information about scholarships for Fort Lewis College students, visit www.fortlewis.edu/flc-scholarships.
fstone@durangoherald.com
