Richard Hardwick Morton

PVT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : HQ & Service Co

ASN#18129915

Born 1921 in TX, Died 2003

Artist

Other residence(s): Oklahoma City, OK; El Paso, TX; Aberdeen, MD

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

College education before the war: Pratt 3 years

College education after the war: Oklahoma City Univ., Univ. of Tulsa, Instituto Allende (Mexico CIty)

Notes: Final rank T/5

Source: 603rd Camouflage Engineer Roster provided by W. Anderson; 603rd reunion mailing list; Company D With Addresses Roster; Photograph 91-14 GALP archive; photo from Ancestry® (1939 high school yearbook)

Richard Morton was born on August 8, 1921, in Dallas, TX, the second of his father's three children (the first of his mother's two). His father was a shipping clerk, and later a salesman for Nabisco. Sometime in the 1930s the family moved to Oklahoma City, and Richard graduated from Classen High School there in 1939. He showed early talent in art, serving as president of the art club, art editor of the school newspaper, and on the staff of the yearbook.

He then went on to Pratt Institute in New York to study art, and completed three years of study there. He registered for the draft on February 16, 1942, and enlisted in July 1942. While at Pratt, he took a course in camouflage that the school offered early in 1942. Like other Pratt art students who took the course, he ended up in the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion, and served in the European Theatre.

Also like other members of the 603rd, Richard sketched and painted in his spare time. Two of his works appear in The Ghost Army of World War II (Beyer & Sayles). Ninety-seven of his wartime pencil, ink, and watercolor sketches have found a home in the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University

But the artistic work that many members of the unit remember was Richard's cartoons. He became, along with Wendell Arnett, one of the unofficial camp cartoonists. Many of the subjects of the cartoons were officers, and some of them did not look too kindly on these efforts. But General Eisenhower issued an order against the suppression of cartoons, so the offending items continued to show up on the bulletin boards.

His brother Maurice also served throughout the war as a percussionist in the Army band in New Orleans.

Richard was discharged from the Army on October 15, 1945 with the rank of T/5 and returned to Oklahoma City. He established a studio and an art school there, and pursued a BA in Art at Oklahoma City University. On March 29, 1947 he married Oma Jean Hailey. Jean was also an artist, and taught children's classes in his art school.

He would go on to teach at several universities including Northeast Missouri State University and Central State College in Edmond, OK. While living in Edmond, he earned an MA in graphic art at the University of Tulsa. During a residence of several years in El Paso in the early 1970s he established an art school there, and also taught painting at the El Paso Museum of Art.

He taught art at the Instituto Allende in Mexico, and earned an MFA in painting there. He was honored for his work in transparent watercolor at national juried exhibitions, and received the John Martin Award in Watercolor in 1974. His work in the 1970s focused on landscapes of the Southwest and Central Mexico, and was then held in 200 private, corporate, and museum collections in 25 states. He was represented by galleries in New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, and Vermont.

His obituary says that he was "a lover of landscapes," and "always worked on location."

In the mid-1970s he left El Paso and became a civilian graphic artist for the US Army at Fort Sill, OK. In 1980 he moved to Maryland to take a similar job at the Aberdeen Proving Ground.

He was an active member of Artists' Equity and the Harford Artists' Association in Bel Air, Maryland.

Richard and Jean divorced in 1963; he married Zelda Goodson in 1964. Around 1982, he married Sara Purdy who survived him. He was the father of three children: Shelby, Teresa Ann, and Elizabeth Lee, and the stepfather of David Dixon.

He died on July 6, 2003 in Aberdeen, MD and is buried at St. George's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Perryman, MD. His gravestone calls out his participation in the 603rd.