Morgan Maxwell Jr., who faced segregation at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High School in the 1940s, but persevered and went on to higher education, taught college students and became a businessman, died July 26. He was 91.
Maxwell died of natural causes at his home on ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s northwest side, said his wife, Ingrid Maxwell. She was by his side.
“He was an extremely thoughtful person who liked people, and who liked to do good for the community,†said Ingrid Maxwell, mentioning several organizations he supported, including the NAACP and the National Stuttering Association.
Former astronaut Frank Borman, a fellow classmate of Maxwell’s who later was commander of the Apollo 8 mission, said they both remained good friends and Maxwell visited him several times over the years on his ranch near Bighorn, Montana.
“Morgan was a great friend of mine. I knew him really well since the summer of 1944,†said Borman, 92, explaining that they both were working at Yosemite for the National Park Service.
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Borman said about 100 teens from around the country worked at the national park on a project to halt a disease from gooseberry bushes that was killing pine trees.
“No one would room with him (Maxwell),†recalled Borman. “I knew him from (ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High) football, and we roomed together, and that cemented our friendship.â€
Another racial incident regarding Maxwell that Borman recalled was when ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High beat Douglas High in football 20-0 in October 1944.
Coach Rollin Gridley took the team to the Gadsden Hotel to eat, and Maxwell was approached by the hotel manager and was told that Negroes were not served, Borman said.
As Maxwell walked to leave the hotel’s restaurant, he turned and looked back and saw Coach Gridley and the team following him.
“We all eat together,†Borman recalled Gridley’s words. They went to a grocery store and bought soda, bread and bologna for sandwiches, and the team ate at a nearby park.
“This incident affected me the rest of my life,†said Borman. “It was a great lesson in doing what was right,†he said.
“Morgan was unique. I never heard him speak ill of anybody. He was a class act. He embodied everything you wanted in a son. Anyone who knew him, will miss him,†Borman said.
Maxwell was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and moved to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ from Topeka Kansas in 1940 when his father, Morgan Maxwell Sr., became principal of the all-Black segregated Dunbar School. His mother, Kathryn, was hired to teach Black students in the Marana Unified School District, said Ingrid Maxwell.
“Morgan was very close to his parents, and they taught him that to succeed, you must work hard, and education was the way to climb in life,†recalled his wife of 41 years.
After graduating from ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High in 1945, Maxwell attended the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ majoring in finance and graduated in 1949.
He served in the Army and was an auditor working at the Pentagon, and after his service he enrolled at the University of Southern California and received a master’s of business administration in 1955.
Maxwell went on to New York University for a doctorate but did not complete his dissertation after a professor told him he was likely not to pass him because he was a stutterer, recalled Ingrid Maxwell. She said her husband was “disheartened†and left NYU and taught at Clark Atlanta University and Prairie View A&M University — two historically Black colleges — before returning to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ in 1961.
He founded Morgan Maxwell Realty, and primarily did real estate residential appraising and also was a contractor for the construction of homes for first-time, low-income home buyers under a Federal Housing Administration program.
In 1967, Maxwell was appointed deputy state treasurer, and he also became a designated and approved fee appraiser for both the Veterans Administration and Federal Housing Administration. He served as chairman of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Civil Rights Commission under Governors Samuel Pearson Goddard Jr. and Jack Williams.
He was a life member of the NAACP and the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Association of Realtors. He also founded the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Chapter of the National Stuttering Association in 1987 and organized workshops for the annual National Stuttering Association convention, meeting Joe Biden a keynote speaker in 2004 in Baltimore.
In retirement, Maxwell was treasurer of the Dunbar Coalition that helped convert the closed Dunbar School into the Dunbar Pavilion: an African American Center for Art and Culture.
Maxwell also was active in the Greater Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers 9th and 10th Calvary Association and was a board member of the Little Chapel of All Nations on the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ campus.
In addition to his wife, Maxwell is survived by his sons, Morgan Maxwell III and Martin Maxwell and three grandchildren.
Private services will be held, and in the future a public memorial service will be planned once the coronavirus pandemic eases.
Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at cduarte@tucson.com or 573-4104. On Twitter: @cduartestar
Carmen Duarte
Reporter
