WEBVTT 00:00:08.769 --> 00:00:10.769 My name is George Morrell. I, uh, retired from the university about 15 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:20.096 years ago. I started my career at the university in 1946, but I had 00:00:20.129 --> 00:00:24.727 already been at the university since 1937. When I retired, I was director 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:29.776 of purchasing and business services. I was born in Florence. Just down the 00:00:29.809 --> 00:00:33.856 road a little ways. I'm a second generation native of Arizona. My father 00:00:33.889 --> 00:00:38.326 was born here in Arizona. I grew up there, came to school at uh what was 00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:43.097 then Arizona State Teachers College in 1937. Worked my way through school 00:00:43.130 --> 00:00:45.945 and graduated in 1941. 00:00:45.978 --> 00:00:52.506 Went into the Air Force in December of 1941, spent 5 years in the Air 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:58.826 Force as a fighter pilot. Came out. Campus was maybe 10 to 12 major 00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:04.165 buildings. We had about 7 dormitories at that time. A lot of students 00:01:04.198 --> 00:01:07.087 lived on campus, the ones that didn't actually weren't from Tempe or 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:10.846 Phoenix or that area usually lived on campus. We didn't have all the 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:13.926 outside apartments and that sort of thing in those days that they have now. 00:01:13.959 --> 00:01:18.686 The college bisected by Orange Street and College. It ran College ran all 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:23.385 the way through North and South, and Orange Street ran all the way through. 00:01:23.418 --> 00:01:27.947 East and west as far as Forest Avenue, so there was traffic through the 00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:31.507 campus at all times. When I came back from the service, there weren't, 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:35.186 where there were no new buildings. We were just starting to to grow and 00:01:35.219 --> 00:01:39.266 all that area where Gamage Auditorium is now and all that curve in there 00:01:39.299 --> 00:01:44.546 except for where the trailers were was the college farm we raised chickens 00:01:44.579 --> 00:01:51.617 and we raised hogs and we. Uh, we had a dairy farm, but it was a little 00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:57.286 bit out of. Out on Mill Avenue. And part of the produce was used for the 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:00.397 dining hall, what little bit that they could, all the eggs and that sort 00:02:00.430 --> 00:02:04.275 of thing. And the reason I know it well is because when I came to school, 00:02:04.308 --> 00:02:09.987 that was my first job. I was cleaning the chicken pens and the pig pens at 00:02:10.020 --> 00:02:16.366 the college farm. That was my first job. I did that for a year. And then I 00:02:16.399 --> 00:02:21.606 was promoted. I went from there to the dining room and I was in the 00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:27.036 dishwashing crew in the dining room for a year. And then I was, since I 00:02:27.069 --> 00:02:32.316 was in accounting and had done some clerical work and knew got acquainted 00:02:32.349 --> 00:02:37.436 with Gilbert Cay, he gave me a job as a student. Assistant in the business 00:02:37.469 --> 00:02:41.316 office, so I spent my last two years as a, as a clerk in the business 00:02:41.349 --> 00:02:48.896 office for I'm working my way through college. 00:02:48.929 --> 00:02:52.017 We used to have a lot of faculty meetings and have a lot of fun at them 00:02:52.050 --> 00:02:56.957 too. But I suggested let's do something with the river, and so we did in 00:02:56.990 --> 00:03:04.356 that fall of '66. Bob McConnell was the fifth year critic, and he had 16 00:03:04.389 --> 00:03:09.427 students that tramped up and down the river, rode it on horseback, flew 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:13.835 over in airplanes, talked to every agency around the valley that could 00:03:13.868 --> 00:03:17.427 have anything to do with the Salt River, and built a model and came up 00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:22.646 with it, and we presented it in the student union building. To community 00:03:22.679 --> 00:03:28.927 leaders in March of 1967, but Bob, he was the mentor that guided those 16 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:34.566 students. Well, for the next three years, we did design projects that were 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:39.916 focused on what they had done up and down the river and then in March of 00:03:39.949 --> 00:03:45.327 '69, we convened about 80 business and civic leaders at the Safari Hotel 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:52.085 in Scottsdale. And made this presentation, divided them into groups to 00:03:52.118 --> 00:03:56.846 Recommend on various aspects of it, and it wound up with the, the motion 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:02.487 being made by Larry Merron, who was the president and founder of the 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:07.717 Arizona Academy, the organizers of the Arizona town halls. Larry moved 00:04:07.750 --> 00:04:14.085 that the Valley Forward Association be asked to undertake the funding, 00:04:14.118 --> 00:04:20.447 management, design, and operation of the Rio Salado project. Making use of 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:25.467 all resources public and private. And so that was seconded and that's what 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:29.226 happened. Valley Forward was just forming at that time and I was one of 00:04:29.259 --> 00:04:32.967 the founding members of Valley Forward, so I became chairman of Valley 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:38.106 Forward's Rio Salado Committee and Valley. For shepherded the project and 00:04:38.139 --> 00:04:43.387 kept it alive for the decade of the 70s, after which legislation was 00:04:43.420 --> 00:04:48.467 passed that that Valley Forward had suggested and drafted creating the 00:04:48.500 --> 00:04:53.447 Riola Development District. I was appointed to that. So I've lived with 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:58.127 the Rio Claro from, from the beginning. The Rio Claro Development District 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:03.606 commissioned a preliminary study that was put before the voters, a very 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:09.887 ambitious program, putting the whole thing together in one package, and it 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:14.257 was just too much for the voters, and they voted it down. Harry Mitchell, 00:05:14.290 --> 00:05:18.007 then mayor of uh of Tempe, was on the Rio Flower Development District 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:22.526 board. And came in the next morning and said, we're gonna do it, and Tempe 00:05:22.559 --> 00:05:28.437 has done it. And uh while I am often referred to as the father of the Rio 00:05:28.470 --> 00:05:32.495 Salado project, it's the mayors of Tempe and the people who elected them 00:05:32.528 --> 00:05:37.765 that put the town lake where it is and to their everlasting credit. And 00:05:37.798 --> 00:05:42.127 that has served, I think, as inspiration to Phoenix to do what they're 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:46.046 doing now with the 5 mile stretch of the river. So it all came out of that 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:50.916 , uh, let's do something with the river business. The Rio Salado Parkway 00:05:50.949 --> 00:05:58.949 in in Tempe will be extended, I'm sure one day 55 miles from Saguaro Lake 00:05:59.259 --> 00:06:04.127 to the Estrella Mountain Regional. Park. It's already begun. Tempe has got 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:09.166 it in place. It's on Phoenix's maps. It's on Mesa's maps. It's going to 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:14.887 happen one day, a parkway for vehicles and then a parallel or comparable 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:20.606 parkway for pedestrians and equestrians and bicyclists and others along 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:26.325 this flowing stream that will connect lakes here in. There perhaps none as 00:06:26.358 --> 00:06:31.187 ambitious as Town Lake, but there'll be at least a trickle of water all 00:06:31.220 --> 00:06:35.757 the way along. That will happen maybe in another 30 years. I like to think 00:06:35.790 --> 00:06:41.805 that there can be a an inaugural Rio Salado marathon that will start at 00:06:41.838 --> 00:06:46.687 both ends and finish in Sun Devil Stadium. There is so much opportunity 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:50.846 for this to happen, and the reality is. That it's at the very heart of 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:56.406 this metropolitan area. What happens there is metropolitan infill instead 00:06:56.439 --> 00:07:00.726 of sprawl, and there are ways for this city to grow that that will 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:05.197 encourage that. And in the student's language, they referred to it as a 00:07:05.230 --> 00:07:11.325 vast reservoir of open space unique to the heart of a great city. That's 00:07:11.358 --> 00:07:16.075 what they said. And that's what's being exploited now. It's going to keep 00:07:16.108 --> 00:07:24.108 on going forever. 00:07:29.649 --> 00:07:34.127 And I don't know if any of your interviews have ever told the story of how 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:40.187 the ASU West went down in flames under Homer Durham. Durham had received, 00:07:40.220 --> 00:07:45.705 uh, property from Goodyear. Goodyear had given them some property. To 00:07:45.738 --> 00:07:49.705 build a university up there and the board of Regents had accepted it. They 00:07:49.738 --> 00:07:55.476 were going down to make a presentation to the joint appropriations 00:07:55.509 --> 00:07:58.947 committees to get the initial funding that they needed before they could 00:07:58.980 --> 00:08:06.305 start the hearing, Senator John Conlon. From Scottsdale 00:08:06.338 --> 00:08:11.955 got the floor and he said, You know, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask a 00:08:11.988 --> 00:08:17.416 couple of questions of Doctor Durham, and, uh, the first question is, I 00:08:17.449 --> 00:08:21.825 understood, I understand that you had a peace rally on the campus last 00:08:21.858 --> 00:08:27.836 night. Is that correct? And the president responded, Yes, that's correct. 00:08:27.869 --> 00:08:32.375 And he said that I understand that the dean that you have chosen for the 00:08:32.408 --> 00:08:36.895 new colleges, Dean Landini took part in that peace demonstration. Is that 00:08:36.928 --> 00:08:42.236 correct? And Dean Landini was sitting there and it was correct that he he 00:08:42.269 --> 00:08:49.037 had participated in an anti-war protest. And there was bedlam in the 00:08:49.070 --> 00:08:54.505 appropriations Committee hearing. The the hearing was shut down. They came 00:08:54.538 --> 00:09:00.206 back home. There was never a hearing on that campus. President Durham went 00:09:00.239 --> 00:09:08.057 to Utah. Goodyear took their land back. And I started under SHAta. And 00:09:08.090 --> 00:09:15.236 Schwada would not talk about an ASU West campus. He would not even 00:09:15.269 --> 00:09:19.557 consider it. I was the lobbyist and I was getting lobbied all this time by 00:09:19.590 --> 00:09:23.885 the people down in the legislature from the west side. And they were 00:09:23.918 --> 00:09:28.645 getting pretty vociferous about they wanted a West Side campus. And I was 00:09:28.678 --> 00:09:35.427 lobbied pretty intensely and um. When Russ Nelson came. 00:09:35.460 --> 00:09:40.265 I had my first interview with him and I still got the paper that I wrote 00:09:40.298 --> 00:09:44.616 down. That there were 3 things that Russ Nelson had to do while he was 00:09:44.649 --> 00:09:51.927 here. Number one is he had to build a west campus. Number 2, he had to 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:58.125 make Sun Devil Stadium available for pro football. And number 3, he had to 00:09:58.158 --> 00:10:03.275 increase the Mexican Americans at the university, attending the university. 00:10:03.308 --> 00:10:07.996 And uh I'm happy to say he did all three of those things, but the West 00:10:08.029 --> 00:10:12.956 campus was one that he had to to pull together and uh I can tell you how 00:10:12.989 --> 00:10:16.907 that happened if you wanna know. In the legislature, it was a year when 00:10:16.940 --> 00:10:24.940 they needed. To have a A sales tax increase. And uh Burton Barr was the 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:29.427 leader, the majority leader in the House, and Stan Turley was the 00:10:29.460 --> 00:10:36.356 president of the Senate. And they needed a vote very crucial in the Senate. 00:10:36.389 --> 00:10:43.677 And so they They needed a vote from a couple of West Siders. Legislators 00:10:43.710 --> 00:10:48.385 Leela Alston is one who who was there and Lela said, I'm not going to vote 00:10:48.418 --> 00:10:53.395 for it unless you support an ASU West campus. So Stan Turley phoned me up 00:10:53.428 --> 00:10:59.467 and said, Brent, I'm on board for a West campus. What, what have you got? 00:10:59.500 --> 00:11:05.446 Can you deal? And so I got uh Paige Mulholland. 00:11:05.479 --> 00:11:09.005 Russ Nelson. 00:11:09.038 --> 00:11:11.917 Uh, Reeves 00:11:11.950 --> 00:11:17.015 Uh, Jack, uh, Kinsinger, anyway, there were 4 or 5 vice presidents, and we 00:11:17.048 --> 00:11:21.336 got in a room and I told him that there was a window of opportunity here 00:11:21.369 --> 00:11:25.976 that, uh, that we could get the support from the, the legislature for a 00:11:26.009 --> 00:11:32.015 West campus. And Russ Nelson's response was, well, that sounds really good. 00:11:32.048 --> 00:11:35.927 Let's appoint a committee and, uh, you know, study this issue, and I said 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:43.960 , no, Russ, you got to understand. You've got until one hour from now. If 00:11:44.239 --> 00:11:52.239 you want a West campus, we can deal and to his credit, he said, go. And uh 00:11:52.960 --> 00:12:00.515 we went down and we cut the deal. And uh we got the money in the budget 00:12:00.548 --> 00:12:05.125 that appeared in the in the in the. In our budget to do something at West 00:12:05.158 --> 00:12:11.576 Campus. And the next year, very shortly thereafter, we got Doug Todd to 00:12:11.609 --> 00:12:17.076 help us. And we wrote into the legislation that there would be an ASU West 00:12:17.109 --> 00:12:23.657 campus in the statutes. Before the border regents ever considered it. 00:12:23.690 --> 00:12:31.690 And that's how we got around the border regions. 00:12:34.479 --> 00:12:39.326 Uh, I'm in my doctor's office waiting for my appointment. The nurse 00:12:39.359 --> 00:12:43.206 announces that the doctor was called away in an emergency, and we would 00:12:43.239 --> 00:12:46.765 make new appointments, and she came to me and said, Mr. Turk, and the man 00:12:46.798 --> 00:12:51.366 next to me says, Are you the Rudy Turk? And trying to be modest, I says, 00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:55.125 Well, I'm Rudy Turk, he says, You're, you're the Rudy Turk that collects 00:12:55.158 --> 00:12:59.797 pots. I said, yes. He said, well, since we can't have our meeting, why 00:12:59.830 --> 00:13:04.076 don't you come to my house and see my pots? And I said, well, not, not, no. 00:13:04.109 --> 00:13:08.417 He says, yes, it's right now. He says, I have some wonderful Roman pots. 00:13:08.450 --> 00:13:14.967 I said, Well, OK. We went over to his house. This man was named. Everso, 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:20.866 Jim Everso. And uh we went in the living room and he had some bad Roman 00:13:20.899 --> 00:13:25.037 pots. They weren't anything, and they had been sold to him by an Israeli 00:13:25.070 --> 00:13:28.996 leader and he he got taken and I wasn't impressed. He says, You don't like 00:13:29.029 --> 00:13:32.515 my pots. I said, No, I really don't. He said, Well, come, let's have a 00:13:32.548 --> 00:13:36.797 drink. I says, you and I can't have drinks. We both have prostate problems. 00:13:36.830 --> 00:13:41.186 We can't drink. He says, we'll have juice. In other words, I was annoying 00:13:41.219 --> 00:13:48.576 him. We went into the study or library and he had shelves built and each 00:13:48.609 --> 00:13:54.307 shelf was a little box and and each box was a Maria pot. Maria was the out 00:13:54.340 --> 00:14:01.255 is was the outstanding Indian potter in America ever. OK. There are all 00:14:01.288 --> 00:14:06.096 these wonderful, wonderful pots, one after another. I said, Maria, he says 00:14:06.129 --> 00:14:09.875 , do you know Maria? I said, Yes, I know Maria. He says, really, you 00:14:09.908 --> 00:14:14.657 haven't know Maria until the morning. So I said, yes, when I was a little 00:14:14.690 --> 00:14:18.875 boy, I went to the Chicago World's Fair, and we went to one state pavilion 00:14:18.908 --> 00:14:22.157 after another, and we got to the New Mexican pavilion and there was an old 00:14:22.190 --> 00:14:26.765 lady making pots on her lap. And when we're ready to leave, I cried and 00:14:26.798 --> 00:14:30.446 made a big fuss, and the old lady says, let me keep them until you're 00:14:30.479 --> 00:14:34.846 ready to go. And I sat on this lady's lap and we made pots, and that's how 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:38.206 I met Maria. Oh, you really like Maria? I says, Would you like these pots 00:14:38.239 --> 00:14:42.206 ? I says, Well, I would love to have these pots. He says, That's you, the 00:14:42.239 --> 00:14:47.206 university. I said, Yes. He says, You come tomorrow, you can have them. I 00:14:47.239 --> 00:14:50.566 said, I can't come tomorrow. I have two classes tomorrow. OK, you don't 00:14:50.599 --> 00:14:54.287 want the pots. You don't want them. I said I'll be there, so I canceled 00:14:54.320 --> 00:15:00.927 two classes and we picked up the pots. Uh, a week later I'm at my doctor's 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:05.606 office. Doctor said, I'm sorry we couldn't meet last week. And I said, 00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:10.515 Well, that happens. I said, but I met Mr. Everso, and he gave us his 00:15:10.548 --> 00:15:15.775 pottery collection, 35 Marias. I said, Did he sign anything? Did he sign 00:15:15.808 --> 00:15:18.566 anything? I said, Well, yes, he signed something. He says, That's good 00:15:18.599 --> 00:15:21.519 because he died this weekend.