Biographical Sketch

Allen H. Morgan of Wayland, Mass. was a avid ornithologist, outdoor enthusiast, and environmental advocate. "He was a conservationist long before it was fashionable, and an inspiring public speaker who could galvanize his audience into action. His untiring spirit, unwavering beliefs, and powers of persuasion brought him success time and time again as he rescued thousands of acres of open space from the threat of development." (Atkins, 1990)

Born on 12 August 1925 in Waltham, Mass., Morgan was the son of Charles T. and Helen C. Morgan. He had two siblings: an older brother Charles Carter (called Carter), who died when Morgan was twelve years old (1938), and a younger sister Margery (Jerry) Morgan. Morgan attended Wayland public schools, Mount Prospect School for Boys in Waltham, and Weston High School in Weston, Mass. He interests in ornithology began in 1934 (age nine) while under the tutelage of David Lloyd Garrison, a English and Latin teacher at Mount Prospect and a close friend of the famed ornithologist Ludlow Griscom. Morgan gave his first public lecture on birds and conservation to the Wayland Garden Club in 1938 and was elected the first non-Harvard student member of the Harvard Ornithological Club in 1939. Through Garrison, Morgan had the opportunity to meet Russell Mason, then director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and in 1940, he got to know Mason further during a summer job with the curator of the Boston Society of Natural History, cleaning and cataloging a collection of bird skins housed adjacent to the Mass. Audubon headquarters in Boston. He join the Mass. Audubon Society in 1941, and during that year he gave another lecture to the Wayland Garden Club, using a bird-song record and color slides borrowed from Mass. Audubon. The club later established a wildlife sanctuary in the Wayland river marshes.

In early 1943, Morgan left high school halfway through his senior year to enter Bowdoin College. He joined the United Sates Marine Corps Reserve in February and was employed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from May to June, working on a gull control project along the Maine coast. He was called to duty by the Marine Corps in July 1943 and was assigned to officer training at Dartmouth College. He served in the Marine Corps in North and South Carolina, Virginia, and California from 1944-1946, spending all of his free time birding.

In 1946, he married Alice Rand, and they had three children: Charles C., Helen Selinda, and David Rand Morgan. After his graduation from Bowdoin in 1947, he took a job as a clerk at a casualty insurance company in Hartford, Conn. He left Hartford in 1950 to partner with his father, a life insurance salesman in Boston, Mass., but was recalled to the Marine Corps later in the year. He was released from the Marine Corps and returned to the life insurance business in 1951, just prior to his father's death.

On his return to the Boston area, he activity pursued birding once again, going before and after work for more than 100 days a year. In April 1952, he discovered and collected North America's first cattle egret and became a celebrity in ornithological circles. A few weeks later, Morgan was contacted by a friend who had attended a local showing of films by Richard Borden, the famed Walt Disney Company wildlife film-maker, and told a cattle egret was spotted in a film that Borden had shot five months earlier. The next day, Morgan met with Borden to confirm the recording, and they subsequently became friends. Borden asked Morgan to write scripts for several of his films, and during this process Morgan became interested in wildlife photography and began to shoot his own films. Morgan also began a campaign to preserve "open space" for people and habitats for wildlife. In 1953, he organized and helped found the Sudbury Valley Trustees, Inc., a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect the flood-plain marshes of the Sudbury River Valley.

In 1956, as the newly appointed president of Mass. Audubon, Borden asked Morgan to consider becoming more involved in the society. There were no positions open at the time, so he suggested that Morgan join the society's board of directors. Less than a year after Morgan joined the board, the position of executive vice president came open, and after deep consideration, Morgan decided to leave the insurance business. He was appointed executive vice president of the Mass. Audubon Society in November 1957.

Under Morgan's leadership, the Massachusetts Audubon Society grew from a birdwatching and educational group of 7,500 members to a significant conservation organization of 25,000 members. Morgan also initiated more educational programs, expanded the sanctuaries and nature centers, and lobbied on behalf of the society for conservation legislation at the state and federal level. In addition to his work at the society, Morgan also frequently lectured (some years speaking at more than 100 engagements) and served on or consulted for a number of environmental committees, boards, and government commissions, including the Sudbury Valley Trustees, New England Wildflower Preservation Society, Wayland Conservation Commission, Elbanobscot Foundation, Inc., National Wildlife Federation, Massachusetts Conservation Council, and Coastal Wetland Action Committee, among many others. In his free time, Morgan continued with his ornithological interests at home, during Mass. Audubon sponsored trips, and while on vacation.

After Morgan's retirement from Mass. Audubon in 1980, he continued lecturing, consulting, and writing until his death in 1990.