HOUSTON—Over the course of a century, Stewart Morris has made his mark—as a U.S. Navy officer in World War II, longtime president and co-chief executive officer of Stewart Title and one of the founders of Houston Baptist University.
“I’ve felt, known and firmly believed that the Lord has directed my life,” he said. “When I look at all my blessings, I may sound like a heretic, but I sometimes think they keep poor books upstairs. If they recorded all my mistakes, there would be no room for blessings.”
Morris doesn’t mind bragging about his children and his grandchildren, the nation he loves or the university to which he has donated $25 million in his lifetime.
‘A pretty dull person’
But when asked to talk about himself, the self-deprecating 100-year-old downplays his achievements.
“I’m a pretty dull person. I only married once. It just lasted for 70 years, and then she left me,” Morris said, speaking of his wife Joella, who died in 2013.
He’s quick to add he worked at the same place his entire career—the title company his extended family established in 1893.
“I went on the payroll when I was 10 years old,” Morris said. “I was the office boy. And later on, I became head office boy.”
Morris initially earned $5 a week for sweeping floors, running errands and tending to other miscellaneous tasks. From his weekly earnings, his father instructed him to give $1 to church, save $1 and use the other $3 to buy his own shoes, clothes and other personal items.
“I was 15 years old before I wasted my money on a 5-cent Cola-Cola,” he recalled.
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At about the same age he started work in the family business, Morris also responded to a public invitation in a worship service and committed his life to Christ.
“I did not inherit a bunch of money from my parents. … But what I learned from them about life and about being a Christian, that’s what really counted,” he said.
Served in the South Pacific during WWII
When he was 13, he met 10-year-old Joella Mitchell at a Baptist camp, and they became friends. About 10 years later, they reconnected at Southern Methodist University and began dating. They married not long before he joined the U.S. Navy.
Morris—who had earned degrees from the University of Texas and from SMU Law School—spent 90 days in officer’s training at Columbia University. With a single stripe on his sleeve, he reported for duty in San Diego, where he boarded LST-38 bound for the South Pacific. The ship’s classification stands for “landing ship, tank,” but Morris offered another explanation: “long slow target.”
“I was scared,” he confessed. “But I always did my duty.”
After participating in several key landings in the Pacific Theater of Operations, Morris returned to civilian life and the family business. He devoted himself to Stewart Title’s growth, and the company eventually expanded into all 50 states and 40 countries.
A founder of HBU
In the 1950s, Houston-area Baptists recognized the need for a Baptist college in their city. Before long, Morris was asked to chair Union Baptist Association’s college property committee.
The committee focused on an undeveloped 390-acre tract in Sharpstown that was available for $760,000. Morris first secured a $500,000 loan from the Rice Institute’s board of governors and the remaining $260,000 based on the personal guaranty of 25 founders.
The sale of several parcels of the property—including 45 acres to what is now Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital—enabled the loan to be paid back and provided the initial funding to get the school started on sound financial footing.
Morris and the other founders also left a lasting imprint on the school’s character by drafting the preamble to its bylaws. The document ensured Houston Baptist College—later Houston Baptist University—would remain “truly Christian” and not waver from that commitment, he noted.
The preamble requires that all trustees, officers, faculty and staff “believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible, both the Old Testament and New Testament” and adhere to the belief that salvation is only “by repentance and the acceptance of and belief” in Jesus Christ.
Staying true to founding principles is another life lesson Morris learned early and has impressed upon his three children and eight grandchildren, and it’s one he wants his nine great-grandchildren to learn, as well.
“If you start something, don’t quit,” he said.
Instill commitment to law and liberty
By his reckoning, the rule holds true whether it is applied to vocational goals, a university’s dedication to Christian doctrine or a nation’s commitment to the rule of law and to liberty.
Morris—a student of American history—particularly wants the rising generation to understand the sacrifices the nation’s founders made.
“They put their necks on the chopping block. They risked their lives. They risked everything they had to create the United States of America,” he said.
To make sure HBU students understand American founding principles of freedom and the rule of law, the Joella and Stewart Morris Foundation gave a $10 million lead gift to establish the Morris Family Center for Law & Liberty.
The classroom building, which will be modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia, will stand 170 feet high—the equivalent of 15 stories—and be visible from the freeway.
More than a dozen years ago, Morris and his late wife also gave the lead gift to establish the Morris Cultural Arts Center, home to the Museum of Southern History, the Museum of American Architecture and Decorative Arts, the Dunham Bible Museum, the Dunham Theater and Belin Chapel and Recital Hall. The couple also endowed several scholarships for HBU students.
The contributions Morris has made to HBU—not only financially, but also in time, energy and leadership—reflect one other life lesson he learned over the course of a century: “Be sure to leave things in better shape when you leave than when you got there.”
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