Margaret (Peg) Morrison
is honored with a Brick from Anonymous
Teacher. Leader. Mentor. Friend. Those are a few of the words that come to mind When I think of Peg Morrison.
She left her home in North Carolina and her job in teaching and public relations, to move to Wichita with her husband, Garrett. Shortly thereafter, she accepted a job as Manager for a group of physicians, became President of the Sedgwick County Medical Assistants, and started teaching classes for women who worked in physicians' offices and who wanted the education necessary to qualify as Certified Medical Assistants. This became one of her favorite volunteer activities and she taught classes, primarily in Medical Ethics and Patient Relations, for many years.
Another professional group with which she volunteered was Administrative Management Society. As president of that group she led them to international recognition for Wichita as the Best Chapter of AMS in its class. At the same time, she became the fourth person in the State to pass all the examinations and to write theory papers necessary to achieve the title of Certified Administrative Manager.
While serving for the Wichita Area Chamber of Commerce on committees such as Education and Livability, she took on the job as chairman of Beautification. Beginning with no Members and no budget, the group she recruited instituted the award known as Keeper of the Plains, one of three awards the Chamber gives annually at its recognition banquet.
For many years she served on the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement, a group whose aim is to give students a hands-on, working knowledge of the skills and practices of running a business. Her contributions to the group brought her recognition as Board Member of the Year. Peg is one of only three women to have received this annual award.
But this is merely a listing of a small selection from the many organizations to which she has given her vision, her energy.
Most of us, when we think of Peg, see her vitality and her enthusiasm for her belief that "Ordinary people can make extraordinary things happen." Her speeches in training and motivation, no matter what the organization or institution for which she is working, move us because her enthusiasm is contagious.
One of her employers told me, "Before Peg came to take over our office, it was in chaos because of turnover. When, years later, she moved on to take another job, with one exception, the entire staff she had hired from the beginning was still here." She does this by making people feel how important they are to the company, the organization. Another employer said, 'Our Company never stood so high in public opinion, as it did during the years Peg Morrison served as our Community Relations Manager."
This short biographical piece can make mention of only a few of the many organizations and clubs to whom Peg has given her talents. All of us who have benefited from her gifts of time and energy over the years think of her with affection because she tackles every job with the same joy of fife. She brings to each of them the same rock-solid reliability that makes us say, "If you want to be sure a job is done, give it to Peg Morrison."
