A Job Well Done

After 45 years, Norma Morris, the longest-serving staff member in Cal State Fullerton's history and the first to receive the university’s Outstanding Staff Award, is retiring.

Caption: Norma Morris gets a hug from Keith O. Boyum, emeritus professor of political science, above, and from Sonia Rehnborg, former administrative secretary in the President’s Office, below. Photos: P. O’Donnell Download Photo


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The veteran staffer, who turns 66 this week, planned and handled details for countless events and wrote thousands of speeches, including convocation addresses for four previous university presidents: Milton A. Gordon, Jewel Plummer Cobb, Miles D. McCarthy and L. Donald Shields. And, although she didn’t work for founding president William B. Langsdorf, she did bowl with him.

Morris was hired in 1966 to work as a part-time clerical assistant for the Art Department and part time for what is now the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. In 1969, she was appointed department secretary of the former School of Interdisciplinary Studies, which housed the departments of American Studies, Linguistics, Religious Studies, Human Services, Russian Area Studies, Technological Studies, and library science programs. She began working as the staff assistant to the president in 1980.

The first recipient of the university’s Outstanding Staff Award in 1978, Morris served on numerous university committees, helping to organize scores of events each year, including commencement ceremonies, which she never missed.

When Morris marked her 40th year of service to the university in 2007, Gordon told her: “We celebrate you today on your 40 years of service and give you thanks for your enormous heart, your incredible memory and your complete love for this campus, its family, its students and our community.”

Similar thoughts and a standing ovation overwhelmed Morris at her Dec. 7 retirement reception, attended by scores of well-wishers, including Gordon, Shields, faculty and staff members and her family.

In retirement, Morris said she plans to spend more time with her mother, husband and grandchildren, as well as take on projects at her Placentia home and get involved with the Emeriti and other university affinity groups.

“It has been an honor and privilege to be a small part of the development of this great university that provides the excellent educational foundation on which our graduates are able to reach their full potential and achieve their individual dreams for their lives,” Morris said. “I have been so fortunate to work with outstanding presidents, faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni and community donors, each of whom will always hold a special place in my heart as Cal State Fullerton always will. My final words, as I said in my retirement remarks, are ‘Go Titans!’”

Caption: Norma Morris sits between former CSUF President Milton A. Gordon and his wife Margaret Faulwell Gordon. They are flanked by, from left, standing: Sandy Quintero, Deanna Merino, Robert Tran, Aaron Thomas, Leticia Stotler, Danielle Garcia, Marcia Anderson, Cassandra Newby, Raul Camacho and Vennita Jackson. Photo by P. O’Donnell Download Photo

Jan. 11, 2012