Nicholas Waln Morris Sr., Aeronautics Scholarship Endowment

Nicholas Waln Morris Sr. was an avid pilot and a sought after flight instructor. Despite his personal regret for having dropped out of high school to pursue a career in aviation during the post-World War I era, he was a lifelong promoter of education. Nick was passionate about flying from an early age until his death at age 76. Nick Sr. was a co-owner of a busy municipal airport in Paoli, PA, a skillful acrobatic aviator, and he made several cross-country flights buying and selling aircraft. During WWII, Nick Sr. volunteered for Valley Forge Military Hospital, helping rehab wounded pilots by getting them back in the cockpit of a plane. He enjoyed inspiring students, and his biggest claim to fame was teaching future astronaut Pete Conrad to fly. At the time of his death, he was in the process of rebuilding an experimental biplane.
When NWC decided to partner with Choice Aviation in Cody, WY, to establish an aeronautics program, the Morris family members, led by Nick Morris Jr. of Powell, saw an opportunity to honor their father’s memory with an endowed scholarship. Nick Sr. strongly valued and advocated for higher education, seeing to it that all of his children attended private schools and college. He would have been so pleased to couple his interest in education with his passion for the skies, and to know that he helped to get a future generation and a new aeronautics program “off the ground.”