Well, Happy and Safe

In at least four or five of Babe’s letters recently, he’s made reference to “Mr. Morgan,” in the context of letters Babe had expected to receive from Mr. Morgan, but which had not yet arrived.

I had a vague memory of my father mentioning Mr. Morgan while I was growing up, in the context of a teacher from Mount Kisco High School, where my father had graduated and Babe had graduated at least a decade before.

When I emailed my father, he replied:

Mr. (Kenneth) Morgan was Dr. Morgan when I was in high school. I’m sure it would be the same man. He was a unique person. He was the advisor for Hi-Y; I was president one year. He was our math teacher. He used to write on the blackboard while still facing the class, if you can picture that. He spent hours outside of class helping us prepare for tests and Regents Exams. I was at his house several times for help. He really took an interest in the kids.

He was sometimes forgetful. He once drove his car to the train station and went to New York. When he returned, he took a taxi home and saw his car was missing and reported it stolen to the police. He was a great guy and great teacher and everybody loved him. I can believe that he corresponded with ex-students in the army.

I haven’t been able to learn much about him online. My father said he was a fairly elderly man when he knew Dr. Morgan, so he’s likely long-since died. I found one reference on a site that says, simply, “Dr. K. B. Morgan, Mount Kisco High School, Mount Kisco, New York, has been appointed Assistant Professor at Pace College (now Pace University, in Westchester County, N.Y.).”

I also talked to Pat (Schmelter) Rosafort, who works with the Mount Kisco Historical Society. We spoke on the phone on Feb. 7 and she recalled Babe and the news of his death, but not many details beyond that. She did remember a lot about Mr. Morgan; she had been a student at Mount Kisco High a few years before my father.

Mount Kisco High, by the way, graduated its last class in 1956 and consolidated with the Bedford School District (my mother graduated after my father; she may have been in the second class at the consolidated Fox Lane High School). The old Mount Kisco High building is now Mount Kisco Elementary School.