Kelly Jon Morris, of Beltsville, MD, passed away suddenly on January 22, 2025, a few days after his 79th birthday. Kelly is a 1968 graduate of Duke University, where he was chairman of the men’s judicial board. He was beloved by his many friends from years of service with the Peace Corps and the World Council of Credit Unions, focused on Togo and sub-Saharan Africa. He is survived by daughters Sandra and Manuella Morris of Madison, WI. Burial was at the family cemetery in West Union, WV, at 1 p.m. on February 1, 2025. A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations in Kelly’s memory can be made to the Friend of Togo through Paypal account [email protected].
Message from Bill Piatt announcing the death of Kelly J Morris
Folks,
Kelly left the party tonight around 7 pm EST. He literally stared down the grim reaper twice since Thanksgiving, making miraculous recoveries. However, each bout left him weaker. Following another procedure this morning, things looked fine, until they didn’t. This round was just one too many.
He was very lucid until the end. We talked just yesterday. He was excited that this particular procedure might finally address some really debilitating wounds that weren’t healing. We had a great chat about the Commanders’ miraculous run and Scheyer’s amazing success as the Duke Basketball coach. He also expressed wonder, amazement & appreciation for the assistance all of you provided to help him get through the past ten years.
He stubbornly fought off two near-death experiences, but the third one took him away. Now he’ll make one last trip back to the family cemetery in Oxford, WV. (details TBD) No formal service is planned at this point, though it would be fitting to have a Memorial Service for him later in the year.
Alafia,
Bill
(Thanks to Jeremy Simons, here’s a picture of the 1976 Peace Corps volunteers in the AgEd (school gardens) project in Togo.
We came into Togo, June 8, 1976, as a group of 15 in the AgEd program. Four volunteers left during the stage/training.
This photo was taken in Cacavelli, (just north of Lome) where the AgEd group had its training.
Included in the photo are our Togolese language teachers and counterparts.
PCVs left to right.
Sitting – Peter Boone, Tony Solomita, Sarge (?), Jeremy Simons
Standing – Keith Mendelsohn, Bob Pierce, Doug Haubert, Scott Cunningham, Kelly Morris (Ag Program Director), Jim Huerter, Marty Havlovic, Peter Kahn)
Here is a link to NPCA’s Benevolent Fund and how it impacted Kelly’s life.
https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/kelly-morris-shares-his-perspective-on-npcas-benevolent-fund/
A link to Kelly’s book “The Bight of Benin”:
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Bight_of_Benin.html?id=sIQfzgEACAAJ&fbclid=IwY2xjawMkVG1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHnluj4CNEQ5PPE1iT4llKzI-hSOyPsG_87-0cmZJSoiOIS45-Tf_6O7LWBBh_aem_9S8XKPYuT8F6wUipr4A7Cg
Some other memories:
From Marco Werman:
I’ve been thinking about Kelly a lot since I heard this news. He took me to site in Dapaong in 1984, a place he loved I recall him telling me. After dropping me and my stuff off at that lone house up on the barren hill moonscape near the Route Nationale, he took Tchalim the driver and me to Bar Lafia for pintade and beer. It was a great three day trip with him because we had two other new volunteers to drop off and do the whole protocol thing with two other prefets, so being the last en route gave me a great exposure to Kelly world. I’ll always remember his command of languages, and he seemed to know every one as we drove north. What a legend. RIP.
From Maurya Johnson:
My strongest memory of Kelly was of a time that I had been in Lome on my own, perhaps with a medical issue, and was having the devil of a time getting a taxi north on my way back to Kara. This was probably in about 1974 (I served at College Chaminade from 1973-75 in the TEFL program).
This particular day, I could see from time to time that Kelly was driving a van carrying other volunteers through the gare finishing errands; I don’t remember how I knew that he was on his way north. When my taxi finally left, I also knew that Kelly had not yet left town. This taxi driver was abysmally bad and terrifying to sit next to (in the death seat). Tires were also bald. Several miles outside of Lome, I thought , “I’d be safer if I got out of this death trap and tried to flag Kelly down.” I cannot tell you how uncharacteristic of me this bold thought was. But that’s what I did!!
As he kindly picked me up from the side of the road half an hour or so later, Kelly said, “I thought, ‘Who is this crazy yovo lady? Oh! I know her!’ “. And that trip was also my only short personal interaction with the [later legendary] Bill Piatt!
While mostly about my own craziness, I think this story reflects the fact that from my limited knowledge of Kelly Morris, I KNEW I could count on him to help me out. So I think that’s why I feel gratitude to those of you who helped HIM out toward the end of his life!
Rest in peace, Kelly. And du courage to the rest of you!