Obituary of Morris Brown

Morris Brown - Shiva Sheet Morris Brown was born on January 30, 1923 in St. Louis, Missouri to Russian Jewish immigrants Louis and Minnie (Gordon) Brown. Minnie was ill, so Louis took the seven year-old Morris and his older brother Phillip (b. December 28, 1921; d. March 29, 1995) to Denver to place them in the National Home for Jewish Children, an orphanage for Jewish children located at 3447 W. 19th Ave. Several of the children in "the Home" had parents who were invalids at the nearby Jewish Relief Consumption Sanitarium. At the Home, Morris' diminutive stature earned him the nickname "Pinky", but, though small, he was a gifted athlete. Although the Home did not allow the children to participate in sports at school - Cheltanham Elementary, Lake Junior, and North High - Morris was an avid participant in sandlot sports, and helped the Home teams rack up impressive win records. While in the Home and at Lake and North he played the trumpet. In May 1942, at age nineteen, Morris enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Entering basic training at a whopping 120 lbs., he joked that his duffle bags weighed more than he did. He was stationed in Panama and Guatemala, where he earned a place on the Army basketball team by adroitly dribbling between the legs of the taller players. He was an airplane armorer, taking care of the 50-caliber machine guns on the B-7 and B-24 bombers. In the Army he discovered that the legal name on his birth certificate was Israel Morris Brown, causing him to be called "Israel" during his service. So after the war he had a judge officially change his to Morris, with no middle name. Taking advantage of the GI Bill he attended Denver University and earned his BA in December 1948. He continued studying at night and earned his MBA in May 1953. In October 1949 he started work with the City and County of Denver in their Commissioner of Supplies department, then switched to the Department of General Services where he was the office manager of the Theaters and Arenas department and continued working there as new venues were built such as Red Rocks, the Coliseum, and Currigan Exhibition Hall. In June 1966 he transferred to the city's Health and Hospitals department and eventually served as non-medical administrator at Denver General Hospital, spending a total of 35 years with the City and County of Denver. In 1955 Morris married the love of his life, Betty Jean Sukonick in a simple ceremony at Rose Hospital where Betty's mother was a patient. In 1957 their son Mark was born, followed by daughter Cathy in 1959. In later life, to his great delight, he became grandfather to Sydney, Shoshana, and Naomi. His family was always of primary importance in Morris' life. In June 1985 he retired from the city, but, not one to retire even in retirement, he spent the next thirteen years as property manager for the York House apartments. Throughout his retirement, Morris volunteered at a number of community organizations, including reviewing narrations for the Colorado Talking Book Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped for a total of 26 years. Morris and Betty were also active board members of the Denver chapter of Friends of Alyn, a children's hospital in Jerusalem. Always involved in the Jewish community, Morris became a Bar Mitzvah in 1936 at the Old Romanisha Shule synagogue, located at W. Conejos Pl. In 1963 he, Betty, and the kids joined the Reform synagogue, Temple Micah, on South Monaco Parkway and in 1974-75 he served as Temple President. In the 1980s Morris and Betty helped found the Am Shalom fellowship group, which met in members' homes for the Jewish holidays and important lifecycle events. Most recently, Morris and Betty became members of Temple Emanuel, greatly enjoying the cultural offerings of a large synagogue. For more than half a century, Morris was a serious practitioner of martial arts. First he studied karate, jujitsu, and kungfu with Officer Goodie at the American Judo Club. Then, beginning at age 60, Morris took up the study of Aikido at the Nippon Kan dojo run by Sensei Gaku Homma. Morris appreciated Aikido's blending of mental and physical fitness, together with its emphasis on safeguarding both oneself and the attacker. Through steady practice he earned the rank of fifth dan black belt and was the oldest practitioner at this studio, retiring after 26 years. He and Betty also practiced Tai Chi for 17 years. Throughout his life, Morris focused on those things he considered most important: duty to country and community, self-improvement, study of classical and contemporary thinkers, humor, sports, and, above all, his relationships with his family and friends.