Roll Call Tribute

From obitsforlive.com

Allnutt Funeral Service
allnuttfuneralservice.frontrunnerpro.com
650 West Drake Road
FORT COLLINS, Colorado, UNITED STATES 80526 

David L. Morris, DVM, PhD
Date of Birth:
 Monday, May 22nd, 1950
Date of Death:
 Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

David Lee Morris, DVM, PhD

Affectionately known as “Dr. Dave”, our husband and father, Dr. David Lee Morris, passed away unexpectedly and without warning on August 3, 2011. We deeply and unimaginably grieve his loss, yet find solace in the knowledge that he was called upon by his Lord and Savior while under a blue Colorado sky, just moments after he finished caring for his beloved herd of beef cattle.

Dad was born on May 22, 1950 to John Franklin Morris and Nellie Lizabeth Morris in Salem, Ohio. Dad spent his childhood and adolescence on the family farm in Columbiana, Ohio, a member of the sixth generation of his family to actively participate in agriculture. Dad enjoyed, (a word he often used), the farm immensely, and forged many of his positive character traits while assisting his family, (another common theme in his life), with day-to-day demands of farming. Growing up on the farm, Dad learned many skills, but most importantly he learned how to analyze a problem and develop a solution. He employed this skill throughout his life and considered it vitally important to his legacy as a father to pass this trait on to his children. He succeeded in doing so.

Dad’s family introduced him to Colorado, visiting with his parents as a youth on family summer vacations. Additionally, Dad spent six weeks in the summer of 1967 with his older brother Paul working on the ranch of a family relative living near Parlin, Colorado. Dad often shared that one of his fondest memories of that summer was winning the packhorse race at that year’s Cattlemen’s Days event in downtown Gunnison, Colorado. By the time Dad graduated from Columbiana High School in 1968, he had set a goal, we feel, to return someday to Colorado.

After attending his first year of undergraduate education at Marietta College in southeastern Ohio on a football scholarship, Dad elected to pursue academics over athletics and enrolled in The Ohio State University. Dad’s attendance at Ohio State coincided with the Woody Hayes “three yards and a cloud of dust” era of Ohio State Football. For part of his student life, Dad even lived in a special dormitory inside Ohio Stadium; his interest in the team remained throughout his life. Being in Colorado, television coverage infrequently showed Ohio State games; The Game on the 3rd Saturday in November, however, was annually broadcast nationwide, and the opportunity to view his alma mater in action he never let pass.

In 1974, Dad graduated from The Ohio State University, College of Veterinary Medicine. Together with his brother Paul, a classmate in the Dad’s graduating vet school class, Dad headed west to Fort Collins, Colorado, to begin a one year internship at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Living in Fort Collins that year confirmed to Dad that Colorado would be his home. His path, however, to remaining in Fort Collins would lead him first to Texas.

The School of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas was Dad’s next stop. There he earned his masters and PhD degrees, and became Board Certified in Theriogenology. In 1977, he was asked to join the Teaching Faculty at Texas A&M. More importantly, College Station was where he also met his beloved wife Lynne. Mom and Dad married in 1979 in Denton, Texas. Their first child, son Brandon, arrived in 1982. Daughter Bethany joined the family in 1986.

While in the midst of completing his degrees and lovingly caring for his growing family, he spent 14 years on faculty instructing veterinary students in large animal surgery and reproduction. Dad found Reproduction, particularly genetic traits and hereditability, supremely interesting. Throughout his career and life, he thoroughly enjoyed tracing bloodlines and lineages, associating them with specific phenotypic or performance traits.

In 1989, Dad received an invitation to join the faculty at the Colorado State University Teaching Hospital, which he accepted. Dad remained on faculty at CSU until 1994, at which time he entered private veterinary practice. More valued by Dad, however, was the fact that he had achieved his goal of returning to Colorado to raise his family. Dad and Mom purchased our small family farm, 10 acres, in 1992, which remains our home to this day.

In 2000, Dad accepted a position as a National Team Leader within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES). In 2005, Dad switched agencies within the USDA to the Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service, Veterinary Services (APHIS/VS) to support the animal identification and animal disease traceability program. Dad worked to provide the Nation with a reliable, cost-effective and accurate system of animal identification, ranging from goats, cattle, horses, swine, sheep, and even aquaculture, so that in the event of disease outbreak, epidemiological traceability would be ensured.

Dr. Dave meant many things to many people. By Dad’s best guess, he trained more than 2,500 veterinarians over the course of his 20 year career in academia and maintained mentor relationships with any student who chose to keep in touch and pick Dad’s ample mind from time to time. As a veterinarian, Dad always strove to provide sound, practical, and thoughtful advice to clients, but importantly, also to anyone who expressed interest in simply “knowing more.” Most recently, Dad worked tirelessly to ensure a healthy and viable livestock population through advocating public policy on animal disease traceability and continuing to offer advice based on sound scientific facts.

To his family, however, Dad meant everything. Being the only members of our family in Colorado, our core nucleus—Mom, Dad, Brandon, Bethany— developed a progressively stronger bond during our journey together in life. Dad constantly held his family at the forefront of his mind and on a daily basis he demonstrated through his words and actions that we always occupied the number one place on his priority list. An excellent example, among many, of his unwavering commitment and devotion to his family is how Dad would pause whatever he was doing to answer a phone call from his wife or children. Without fail, whether Dad was working cows or on a conference call, he would pick up his phone when his family rang, and answer, “hi hon,” or “hey there, what’s up?!”. As a veterinarian, most notably during his veterinary medical education and subsequent residency training, Dad was “on call” for anything that may arrive to the vet clinic. As a family man, Dad was “on call” to his wife and kids continuously, and he always answered any call. Often we, his family, called him multiple times per day, usually with spontaneous thoughts or comments that we wanted to share with him in the moment. We know he loved and cherished being so available to us, and the fact that we chose to share so much of our lives, even the mundane details, with him. As occurs in life, problems did at times arise; Dad, however, no matter how unclear the path to take, would provide words of wisdom that both comforted and assisted. In our minds, we knew there existed nothing in this world that Dad couldn’t fix.

Dad—Thank you for never leaving anything unsaid between us. Thank you for telling us, on our every departure from home, that you loved us and that you were proud of us. Thank you for giving us those special moments, allowing us to tell you that we loved you and were proud of you. We grieve your absence, yet the foresight and wisdom with which you loved and protected us provides great comfort. We love you, we are proud of you, and we will always live with you in our hearts.

Lynne, Brandon, and Bethany

Dr. Dave was preceded in death by his father, John Franklin Morris. Dr Dave is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 32 years, Lynne; his son Brandon, and his daughter, Bethany. Dr. Dave is also survived by his mother Nellie Lizabeth Morris, 90, and brother, 62, Paul Gary Morris, DVM.