Roger A. Morrison Service Information

Roger Allen Morrison of Newtown, passed away on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. He was 85.

Roger was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and raised in a Czech community in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After high school, he joined the Army for a three-year stint during two of which he lived in the heart of downtown Tokyo. When he left the Army, Roger took up the study of Chemistry, with a B.S. degree from Westminster College in Pennsylvania followed by a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. At the same time, he married his first wife, Nora Joan (nee Beneke) and adopted two children, Richard and Sara. He later obtained an M.A. in Applied Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, a small, private graduate school in Santa Monica, CA that offers master's degrees in spiritual psychology.  He did extensive volunteer work for many years with the Insight program associated with USM.  An ordained minister in MSIA for nearly 40 years, his ministry was one of practice, not preaching, committing himself quietly to service of others and seeking a path of peace and loving and acceptance within himself.  For his entire professional career, Roger worked as a research chemist at Mobil Research and Development Corporation. He is the holder or co-holder of thirty-eight U.S. patents in the area of catalytic petroleum and petrochemical processing, covering products that are used in refineries around the world. It was while working at Mobil that he met the love of his life, Verena, some forty-six years ago.  He was a lifelong fitness and outdoors enthusiast who loved hiking everywhere from the Appalachians, to the Swiss Alps, to the Arizona desert where he spent many nights camping in tents.  He was an enthusiastic handball player, a sport which he was introduced to by a friend in Cedar Rapids and which he continued to play in various Philadelphia area leagues until he was 50, winning several trophies over that time.  Roger has been an opera fan for several years and regularly attended theater and symphony concerts as well, and recently acquired a taste for Russian ballet.  He started to dance again and spent many a Saturday night cutting the rug with Verena. Roger was actively engaged in volunteer activity for much of his adult life. In the 1980s he started with work for Amnesty International in the area of human rights. He later became a frequent participant in the Philadelphia Food Bank, Philabundance, assisting in food distribution to nutrition stressed people in the area. He assisted for many years at the Graterford Prison in-house holiday celebrations and served as a volunteer in the local Home Hospice Care of Hunterdon County, NJ., where he also served on the board of the local historical society. At Pennswood, he served on the Pennswood hospice team and the PVRA board. Finally, Roger was an avid reader of the classics of Western literature. A source of great pleasure and satisfaction for him has been to lead and participate in Great Books Discussion Groups for some fifty years. Roger described his bridge-playing skills as... well, better not to ask, he said.

Along with Verena Stocker, his beloved life partner of 46 years, Roger is survived by his beloved children, Richard Morrison and wife Maureen of Williamstown, NJ, Sara Bell and husband Gary of Bellmawr, NJ; grandchildren, Tyler and Natalie Bell. Roger is predeceased by his mother and step-father, Rose and Mike (Herman) Krall.

His Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, August 5, 2023 at 11:00AM at Pennswood Village, 1382 Newtown-Langhorne Road, Newtown, PA 18940. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to Pennswood Village Foundation or Philabundance.

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