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Jim D. Morris, owner
Jim D. Morris, owner

2012 Philanthropic Business of the Year: Morris Oil Co. Inc.

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For more than 50 years, Morris Oil Co. Inc. has given Springfield businessman Jim D. Morris the capital to become a beacon for giving in the community, with donations focusing on aiding needy children and education in the Ozarks.

Morris has contributed to several organizations throughout the years, including Boys & Girls Town of Missouri, the Arc of the Ozarks and Missouri State University, all of which have signage bearing his name.

Morris says he donated $1.5 million in March for the two-level Jim D. Morris Basketball Complex inside MSU’s JQH Arena to house locker rooms and other amenities.

Four years ago, he contributed $150,000 and teamed up with Doug and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to launch Care to Learn. The organization, which now has 10 chapters across southwest Missouri, has helped to fill more than 100,000 requests for food, health and hygiene products for needy school-age children.

“I didn’t realize we were having that kind of problem in Springfield, that that many kids were hurting,” Morris says. “(It) has been unbelievable how successful that’s been.”

Each year, Morris’ employees put together a team for the annual Panther Run, which benefits Care to Learn. Employees also have raised money for organizations such as the American Heart Association, Relay for Life and the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association. Morris Oil also has been a lead sponsor for the CoxHealth Foundation’s Knot Forgotten campaign, which benefits cancer patients.

For Morris, giving back to the community goes back to his childhood. He speaks fondly of his parents, but Morris understands what it’s like to come from a meager upbringing. He earned his way up from picking cotton in the Missouri Bootheel, where he battled a speech impediment for much of his childhood.

He eventually conquered the impairment, but he has never forgotten it, and as an adult, he has made it a personal mission and philosophy to help underprivileged children.

“It certainly hinders your education,” Morris says. “That’s why I want to help kids with disabilities at Arc of the Ozarks and [children] at Boys & Girls Town. They don’t have a chance if someone doesn’t help them.”

Jerry Carroll, the general manager for Morris’ Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Theatre, Ramada Inn and Suites, and Rowdy Beaver restaurant in Branson recounts the company helping the Abou Ben Adhem Shrine Mosque transport children by donating gasoline to the tune of $12,000 per year 2000–06.

“Jim came up the hard way,” says Carroll, who formerly served as president of Morris Oil for more than 20 years. “He didn’t have anything given to him. He doesn’t want any kids to suffer or to do without.”

Click here for full coverage of the 2012 Economic Impact Awards.


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