My name is George Morrell. I, uh, retired from the university about 15
years ago. I started my career at the university in 1946, but I had
already been at the university since 1937. When I retired, I was director
of purchasing and business services. I was born in Florence. Just down the
road a little ways. I'm a second generation native of Arizona. My father
was born here in Arizona. I grew up there, came to school at uh what was
then Arizona State Teachers College in 1937. Worked my way through school
and graduated in 1941.
Went into the Air Force in December of 1941, spent 5 years in the Air
Force as a fighter pilot. Came out. Campus was maybe 10 to 12 major
buildings. We had about 7 dormitories at that time. A lot of students
lived on campus, the ones that didn't actually weren't from Tempe or
Phoenix or that area usually lived on campus. We didn't have all the
outside apartments and that sort of thing in those days that they have now.
The college bisected by Orange Street and College. It ran College ran all
the way through North and South, and Orange Street ran all the way through.
East and west as far as Forest Avenue, so there was traffic through the
campus at all times. When I came back from the service, there weren't,
where there were no new buildings. We were just starting to to grow and
all that area where Gamage Auditorium is now and all that curve in there
except for where the trailers were was the college farm we raised chickens
and we raised hogs and we. Uh, we had a dairy farm, but it was a little
bit out of. Out on Mill Avenue. And part of the produce was used for the
dining hall, what little bit that they could, all the eggs and that sort
of thing. And the reason I know it well is because when I came to school,
that was my first job. I was cleaning the chicken pens and the pig pens at
the college farm. That was my first job. I did that for a year. And then I
was promoted. I went from there to the dining room and I was in the
dishwashing crew in the dining room for a year. And then I was, since I
was in accounting and had done some clerical work and knew got acquainted
with Gilbert Cay, he gave me a job as a student. Assistant in the business
office, so I spent my last two years as a, as a clerk in the business
office for I'm working my way through college.
We used to have a lot of faculty meetings and have a lot of fun at them
too. But I suggested let's do something with the river, and so we did in
that fall of '66. Bob McConnell was the fifth year critic, and he had 16
students that tramped up and down the river, rode it on horseback, flew
over in airplanes, talked to every agency around the valley that could
have anything to do with the Salt River, and built a model and came up
with it, and we presented it in the student union building. To community
leaders in March of 1967, but Bob, he was the mentor that guided those 16
students. Well, for the next three years, we did design projects that were
focused on what they had done up and down the river and then in March of
'69, we convened about 80 business and civic leaders at the Safari Hotel
in Scottsdale. And made this presentation, divided them into groups to
Recommend on various aspects of it, and it wound up with the, the motion
being made by Larry Merron, who was the president and founder of the
Arizona Academy, the organizers of the Arizona town halls. Larry moved
that the Valley Forward Association be asked to undertake the funding,
management, design, and operation of the Rio Salado project. Making use of
all resources public and private. And so that was seconded and that's what
happened. Valley Forward was just forming at that time and I was one of
the founding members of Valley Forward, so I became chairman of Valley
Forward's Rio Salado Committee and Valley. For shepherded the project and
kept it alive for the decade of the 70s, after which legislation was
passed that that Valley Forward had suggested and drafted creating the
Riola Development District. I was appointed to that. So I've lived with
the Rio Claro from, from the beginning. The Rio Claro Development District
commissioned a preliminary study that was put before the voters, a very
ambitious program, putting the whole thing together in one package, and it
was just too much for the voters, and they voted it down. Harry Mitchell,
then mayor of uh of Tempe, was on the Rio Flower Development District
board. And came in the next morning and said, we're gonna do it, and Tempe
has done it. And uh while I am often referred to as the father of the Rio
Salado project, it's the mayors of Tempe and the people who elected them
that put the town lake where it is and to their everlasting credit. And
that has served, I think, as inspiration to Phoenix to do what they're
doing now with the 5 mile stretch of the river. So it all came out of that
, uh, let's do something with the river business. The Rio Salado Parkway
in in Tempe will be extended, I'm sure one day 55 miles from Saguaro Lake
to the Estrella Mountain Regional. Park. It's already begun. Tempe has got
it in place. It's on Phoenix's maps. It's on Mesa's maps. It's going to
happen one day, a parkway for vehicles and then a parallel or comparable
parkway for pedestrians and equestrians and bicyclists and others along
this flowing stream that will connect lakes here in. There perhaps none as
ambitious as Town Lake, but there'll be at least a trickle of water all
the way along. That will happen maybe in another 30 years. I like to think
that there can be a an inaugural Rio Salado marathon that will start at
both ends and finish in Sun Devil Stadium. There is so much opportunity
for this to happen, and the reality is. That it's at the very heart of
this metropolitan area. What happens there is metropolitan infill instead
of sprawl, and there are ways for this city to grow that that will
encourage that. And in the student's language, they referred to it as a
vast reservoir of open space unique to the heart of a great city. That's
what they said. And that's what's being exploited now. It's going to keep
on going forever.
And I don't know if any of your interviews have ever told the story of how
the ASU West went down in flames under Homer Durham. Durham had received,
uh, property from Goodyear. Goodyear had given them some property. To
build a university up there and the board of Regents had accepted it. They
were going down to make a presentation to the joint appropriations
committees to get the initial funding that they needed before they could
start the hearing, Senator John Conlon. From Scottsdale
got the floor and he said, You know, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask a
couple of questions of Doctor Durham, and, uh, the first question is, I
understood, I understand that you had a peace rally on the campus last
night. Is that correct? And the president responded, Yes, that's correct.
And he said that I understand that the dean that you have chosen for the
new colleges, Dean Landini took part in that peace demonstration. Is that
correct? And Dean Landini was sitting there and it was correct that he he
had participated in an anti-war protest. And there was bedlam in the
appropriations Committee hearing. The the hearing was shut down. They came
back home. There was never a hearing on that campus. President Durham went
to Utah. Goodyear took their land back. And I started under SHAta. And
Schwada would not talk about an ASU West campus. He would not even
consider it. I was the lobbyist and I was getting lobbied all this time by
the people down in the legislature from the west side. And they were
getting pretty vociferous about they wanted a West Side campus. And I was
lobbied pretty intensely and um. When Russ Nelson came.
I had my first interview with him and I still got the paper that I wrote
down. That there were 3 things that Russ Nelson had to do while he was
here. Number one is he had to build a west campus. Number 2, he had to
make Sun Devil Stadium available for pro football. And number 3, he had to
increase the Mexican Americans at the university, attending the university.
And uh I'm happy to say he did all three of those things, but the West
campus was one that he had to to pull together and uh I can tell you how
that happened if you wanna know. In the legislature, it was a year when
they needed. To have a A sales tax increase. And uh Burton Barr was the
leader, the majority leader in the House, and Stan Turley was the
president of the Senate. And they needed a vote very crucial in the Senate.
And so they They needed a vote from a couple of West Siders. Legislators
Leela Alston is one who who was there and Lela said, I'm not going to vote
for it unless you support an ASU West campus. So Stan Turley phoned me up
and said, Brent, I'm on board for a West campus. What, what have you got?
Can you deal? And so I got uh Paige Mulholland.
Russ Nelson.
Uh, Reeves
Uh, Jack, uh, Kinsinger, anyway, there were 4 or 5 vice presidents, and we
got in a room and I told him that there was a window of opportunity here
that, uh, that we could get the support from the, the legislature for a
West campus. And Russ Nelson's response was, well, that sounds really good.
Let's appoint a committee and, uh, you know, study this issue, and I said
, no, Russ, you got to understand. You've got until one hour from now. If
you want a West campus, we can deal and to his credit, he said, go. And uh
we went down and we cut the deal. And uh we got the money in the budget
that appeared in the in the in the. In our budget to do something at West
Campus. And the next year, very shortly thereafter, we got Doug Todd to
help us. And we wrote into the legislation that there would be an ASU West
campus in the statutes. Before the border regents ever considered it.
And that's how we got around the border regions.
Uh, I'm in my doctor's office waiting for my appointment. The nurse
announces that the doctor was called away in an emergency, and we would
make new appointments, and she came to me and said, Mr. Turk, and the man
next to me says, Are you the Rudy Turk? And trying to be modest, I says,
Well, I'm Rudy Turk, he says, You're, you're the Rudy Turk that collects
pots. I said, yes. He said, well, since we can't have our meeting, why
don't you come to my house and see my pots? And I said, well, not, not, no.
He says, yes, it's right now. He says, I have some wonderful Roman pots.
I said, Well, OK. We went over to his house. This man was named. Everso,
Jim Everso. And uh we went in the living room and he had some bad Roman
pots. They weren't anything, and they had been sold to him by an Israeli
leader and he he got taken and I wasn't impressed. He says, You don't like
my pots. I said, No, I really don't. He said, Well, come, let's have a
drink. I says, you and I can't have drinks. We both have prostate problems.
We can't drink. He says, we'll have juice. In other words, I was annoying
him. We went into the study or library and he had shelves built and each
shelf was a little box and and each box was a Maria pot. Maria was the out
is was the outstanding Indian potter in America ever. OK. There are all
these wonderful, wonderful pots, one after another. I said, Maria, he says
, do you know Maria? I said, Yes, I know Maria. He says, really, you
haven't know Maria until the morning. So I said, yes, when I was a little
boy, I went to the Chicago World's Fair, and we went to one state pavilion
after another, and we got to the New Mexican pavilion and there was an old
lady making pots on her lap. And when we're ready to leave, I cried and
made a big fuss, and the old lady says, let me keep them until you're
ready to go. And I sat on this lady's lap and we made pots, and that's how
I met Maria. Oh, you really like Maria? I says, Would you like these pots
? I says, Well, I would love to have these pots. He says, That's you, the
university. I said, Yes. He says, You come tomorrow, you can have them. I
said, I can't come tomorrow. I have two classes tomorrow. OK, you don't
want the pots. You don't want them. I said I'll be there, so I canceled
two classes and we picked up the pots. Uh, a week later I'm at my doctor's
office. Doctor said, I'm sorry we couldn't meet last week. And I said,
Well, that happens. I said, but I met Mr. Everso, and he gave us his
pottery collection, 35 Marias. I said, Did he sign anything? Did he sign
anything? I said, Well, yes, he signed something. He says, That's good
because he died this weekend.