A renaissance man, visionary, southern gentleman, community leader and a tireless advocate for Savannah — those are just a few ways friends and colleagues describe Howard Morrison.

“Howard Morrison was one of the most phenomenal people in our community,” said Ellen B. Bolch of THA Group. “He was not only a professional colleague, but a dear friend, he and his beautiful wife Mary.”

Morrison, a Savannah native, died Thursday. He was 75.

Savannah linchpin

Born May, 14, 1943, Morrison was the oldest son of the late Dr. Howard and Mary Lane Morrison. He attended Massie School, The Pape School, graduated from the Choate School in 1961 and from Yale University in 1965 and served three years on active duty in the United States Navy, retiring in 1969 as a lieutenant.

Morrison then went on to serve nearly 30 years in the banking industry, working at C & S Bank, which was founded by his grandfather, Mills B. Lane, and serving as chief financial officer of the Citizens and Southern Realty Investors.

Morrison returned to Savannah in 1996 and went on to help establish the Coastal Business, Education & Technology Alliance, now the Creative Coast, and initiated and developed the Georgia Tech Savannah campus, where he was founding advisory board chairman and subsequently chairman emeritus.

Morrison served on numerous boards and committees in Savannah and across the state, including the Atlanta Humane Society, Georgia Historical Society, United Way of the Coastal Empire, Community Advisory Board of the Junior League of Savannah, Savannah Economic Development Authority, THA Group’s Island Hospice and dozens more.

Helping hospice

“He was the linchpin of our nonprofit hospice board and when he was ill and confined to home, we took the hospice board meeting to him and had a luncheon at his home and it was really amazing to see what it meant to him,” Bolch said.

Morrison was also a champion for many of the company’s developments, including RightHealth Solutions service.

“He took me to Georgia Tech and he used a lot of his contacts to help us work with Georgia Tech and take the innovation even further,” she said.

“He had an influence, I would say, in THA Group’s developments over the last 20 years probably more than anyone else in our community ... We've lost an incredible community leader and a renaissance man, who was very much ahead of his time and very much into all that was new and leading edge and he supported it tirelessly.”

'Rare human being'

Ross Harding met Morrison just a few years after he returned to Savannah. At that first meeting Morrison was wearing a pith helmet, seersucker jacket and shorts.

“He was quite a sight,” Harding said Thursday. “... He was a rare human being. I don’t think I've met anybody in my life quite like Howard.”

Recalling that first meeting, Harding said he was informed that he would soon be moving to Savannah to work with Morrison, a notion he initially brushed off.

“I said, that’s never happening,” Harding recalled. “Three months later I owned a home downtown.”

While the two went on to become business partners founding Verdant Kitchen, more importantly, they became friends, Harding said.

“Howard and I became great friends and went on to found some businesses together, as well. And he and Mary were the most wonderful, open people for my family,” Harding said.

“They shared their life very openly with us and we were frequent guests out at Lebanon (Plantation) and they were just truly delightful people.”

'Ultimate matchmaker'

Harding said Morrison believed deeply that the best way to grow a community through things such as education, health care and community development was to bring people together.

“Howard was the ultimate matchmaker in his own way. He was never more happy than when he could find some strange connection between two people and put them together,” he said.

“That was how he lived his life. He was a dynamic and exhausting person and he was never happy unless he was learning something, having an argument with somebody or trying to get someone married off or moved to Savannah. He was a friend.”

Even when approaching strangers, Harding said Morrison's messages and attempts to bring people together always came from the heart.

“He was perfectly comfortable with it because he did it with an open heart,” he said.

Brynn Grant, COO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, joined the organization in 1997 and Morrison always had a presence at SEDA after returning to Savannah, she said.

“... He was absolutely a partner of ours and in our offices all the time,” Grant said.

“We had what we called a library, a smaller meeting room, and that was Howard’s unofficial office.”

To know Morrison was to love him, Grant said.

“He had an enthusiasm and an energy that was just contagious,” she said.

Morrison is survived by his wife, Mary Reynolds Morrison, his children Howard Jackson Morrison III and Mary Morrison Moore, daughter-in-law Camille Warnell Morrison, son-in-law Timothy Temple Moore, and six grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother Mills Lane Morrison and six nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Monday at First Presbyterian Church, 520 Washington Ave.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to Massie Heritage Center, 207 E. Gordon St., Savannah, GA 31401, the Savannah Technical College Foundation for the Historic Preservation Program, 5717 White Bluff Road, Savannah, GA 31405 or to a charity of your choice.