At its Founders’ Day Banquet earlier this year, Southern Utah University (SUU) honored the late Morris A. Shirts (BS ’47) for his long and distinguished educational career. Shirts joined the school’s faculty in 1959. In addition to his teaching, he filmed football and basketball games—one year receiving the Twelfth Man Award from the football team.
Shirts served as chair of the school’s Division of Education and, in 1967, became the first dean of the College of Education. All the while, he continued to find new ways to improve his community and help others. Among other projects, he helped organize a college in Iran, served on the Utah State Bicentennial Commission, and wrote books about southern Utah’s history and leaders.
