Stan Morris, 90, enjoyed long career in journalism

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PORT DOVER – A newspaper career spanning 73 years came to an end this week with the passing of Stan Morris, long-time publisher and owner of the Port Dover Maple Leaf.

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Samuel Stanford Morris died at his home in Port Dover Tuesday. He was 90.

“Dad grew up in the days when ‘type’ and ‘font’ were all a physical thing,” said his son Paul Morris, the third-generation family member at the helm of the Maple Leaf.

“In those early days, newspaper pages were put together using lines of lead type that were created upside down and backwards in heavy metal chases.

“Like all who worked in the printing trade then, he could read columns of words composed with backwards letters. He was also very happy when those days ended and he embraced computerized type-setting. ”

Morris was born in Port Dover and educated at the former Port Dover Public School. Morris’s parents enrolled him at college in Newmarket when he was 16 for a two-year program.

However, in 1948 – after one year of college and at the age of 17 – Morris made it clear he wanted to stay home and work for the family paper. That he did until his death, his family says, writing articles and proof-reading pages till the end.

Morris and his wife Ione were married for 64 years. The couple met at the Summer Garden in Port Dover in 1955. Ione Morris was originally from Paris and was attending the popular live-entertainment venue with a friend from Simcoe.

Morris had numerous associations over the course of his life, including as a member of the Port Dover Lions Club for more than 50 years. Past president Robert McKinnon remembers Morris as good natured and quick witted.

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“When I joined the Lions, Stan was – No. 1 – very welcoming,” McKinnon said Thursday. “I was incredibly struck by his wit. The Lions would tease him about the paper and he always had a good comeback.

“Stan loved the Lions and the Lions loved Stan. He just loved everything about Port Dover, and I’m sure he carried that with him till the last minute. He didn’t want to be anywhere else other than here. ”

Former Haldimand-Norfolk MP Diane Finley wrote the weekly column in the Maple Leaf for Port Dover Composite School as a teenager. She recalls long hours in the Maple Leaf archives doing research projects on the history of Norfolk County.

“Over almost 60 years, I had the great joy of knowing Stan Morris as a benevolent employer, a responsible journalist, a fervid booster of Port Dover, and a dear friend,” Finley said in an email.

“Behind his self-effacing mild manner was a sharp memory and a wry sense of humor. He always delighted in his family and whatever they were doing. There’s no doubt that our community has lost a man who contributed more than most will ever know. ”

Due to his family’s long association with the Maple Leaf, Morris was regarded as an authority on local history. He frequently wrote about the town’s colorful past in the pages of the Maple Leaf.

Morris was a group leader in the former Knox Presbyterian Church on Chapman Street West, which recently folded. Fellow congregant Ray Marks of Port Dover remembers Morris as a journalist who always carried a camera and who was always looking for the news angle in any given situation.

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“He was Mr. Port Dover,” Marks said. “If anyone deserved that title, it was Stan Morris. He was a kind, gentle-hearted man and everyone loved him.

“Whenever controversial issues came up, Stan never took a hard and fast position. He was the consummate reporter in that he tried to get both sides of the story. He was a very fair-minded man in that respect. ”

The Thompson-Waters Funeral Home in Port Dover is handling arrangements. A visitation is scheduled for Monday from 4 pm to 7 pm Proof of double vaccination for COVID-19 plus identification must be presented at the door.

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