Stephen B. Morris

David Roscoe remembers: “On Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017, in NYC I attended a moving celebration of Steve’s life, emceed by his wife Vickie, which included childhood memories from Jeff Miller and Charlie Stone, as well as a spirited rendition of Alleluia featuring Dan Bergfeld and his wife Holly Adams. Steve’s three brothers, Pete, ’63, Fred, ’68, and Daniel also spoke. In addition, attending from Y65 were the Trotmans, Kinneys, Kendricks, Rusty Tilney and Steve Rockmore. Steve was a highly successful executive, whose main philanthropic passions were public radio journalism and the integration of undocumented immigrants into American society. Steve’s wit, intelligence, leadership, humility, empathy, sensitivity, passion, humor, respect for all others, and his love of gardening and large trays of cookies, all came through clearly in the fifteen stories told by family, friends, and colleagues from all parts of his life.”

Jeff Miller remembers: “Steve was a lifelong dear and close friend and his loss is a terrible blow. He had a wry, but invariably cool and intelligent, take on life, and I always came away from our discussions understanding the world, and sometimes myself, a little better. Modest to a fault, but highly talented in his many interests, intensely private and yet caring and sympathetic, a wonderful guy who will be missed by all who knew him.”

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Stephen B. Morris, left his devoted family, abundant vegetable garden, John Deere tractor and countless friends on July 19th, 2017, after a two-year battle with prostate cancer. A graduate of Yale and Harvard Business School, Steve balanced an ambitious and gratifying career with a deeply rewarding home and personal life. His compost building expertise, dominating top spin serve, love of wine and intellectual curiosity were almost as extraordinary as his skills as a friend, father and delicious husband. Steve retired in 2009 after a 40 year career in marketing and media information that included two start-ups. It concluded with 18 satisfying years as CEO of Arbitron, where he stewarded the company from a time of great difficulty to one of strength.

Characteristically, he felt especially proud of Arbitron being voted one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For and the #3 best company for women to work. Because his interests were broad, he enjoyed serving on boards as diverse as Stetson; Welches Grapes (where he realized that if reincarnated, he would like to return as a grape farmer); New York Theater Workshop; Neighbors Link of Mt. Kisco and Parsons Dance where he was Chairman for nearly ten years. Chairing New York Public Radio’s Digital Innovation Fund was another project dear to his heart. Family was essential to Steve. His wife Vickie was his life-long love and best friend for over 50 years. He often joked that she infused “red blood into his wasp’y blue blood veins”. His children, Robin and Chris, were also extremely close to him.

Steve and Vickie traveled the world together (often bringing their children and grandchildren), created meals based around what came fresh out of their vegetable garden, made legendary raspberry jam, and whenever possible, made time for what was important in life. Though Steve’s family will miss him beyond words, they are deeply grateful for all of the time, memories and love that they shared (they would also happily return as grape farmers if they could spend another lifetime with Steve!) If you would like to delight Steve, please consider donating to WNYC Studios at New York Public Radio (cgreenberg@nypublicradio.org) or pledge3.wnyc.org/donate/memoriam/onestep or Neighbor’s Link of Mt. Kisco neighborslink.org/engage/donate). Steve’s life celebration is still being planned.


Published in The New York Times on July 25, 2017