Evening star., 1950-08-25
Dr.. Harcout Morgan,
Former IVA Director,
Dies in Tennessee
by the Associated Press

BELFAST. Tenn. Aug. 25.-Dr.
Harcourt A. Morgan. a retired
director Of the Tennessee Valley
Authority. died at his home here
today. He was 80.
The educator and expert in
agricultural matters resigned from
the iva Board of Directors in
May, 1948. He was succeeded by
DR.. Henry A. Martin of the Uni
versity Of Missouri.
DR.. Morgan served on IVA for
Is years, bringing to that project
20 years in behalf of Southern ag-
riculture.
Appointed i'm 1888.
He resigned his post as presi-
dent of the University of Tennes-
see to devote his full time to the
iva agricultural program.
DR.. Morgan left his native Can
ada as young college graduate
when he heard that scientifically
trained men were needed in Dixie.
Twenty years of service in be-
half OF Southern agriculture pre-
ceded his elevation to the presi-
dency of the University of Ten
nessee in 1919. Then in 1888.
while he was still head of the
university, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt named him to the Ten
nessee Valley Authority, a three
man board created to operate the
Governments hydroelectric plant
at Muscle Shoals, Ala, build Nor
riS dam in Tennessee and develop
the vast Tennessee valley basin.
A year later he resigned his uni
versity Office to devote all his time
to the iva project.
DR.. Morgan believed that farm
life made for a sturdier civiliza-
ton and as early as 1920 set out
to solve the problem of concen-
tration Of population in industrial
cities.
Ideas Carried Out.
He advocated that men and
women working in factories should
live on farms near the cities in
which they were employed Their
income, under this plan, would
be derived from part-time indus
trial employment and supple
mented by cultivation of the soil.
DR.. Morgan's ideas were carried
out successfully at Kingsport, an
industrial city in East Tennessee.
His studies along these lines
brought his appointment on the
Tennessee Valley Authority.
DR.. Morgan went to the LOU
lslana State University's agricul.
tural experiment station In 1889
after his graduation from the Uni
versity OF Toronto. He managed
to combine his work there with
the graduate study at Cornell uni
versity from 1891 to 1898.
Ticks and Weevils Studied.
AS biologist and entymologist
Tor the experiment station, he be-
came one of the leaders in effect
ing control of the cattle tick, long
a barrier to agricultural progress
IN the South. and in fighting the
cotton boil weevil. He conducted
the first experiments which showed
the weevil was not carried through
seed.
In 1905 he went to the Uni
versity Of Tennessee as director of
the agricultural experiment sta
ton. He was elected dean of the
college Of agriculture in 1918 and
was chosen president of the uni
versity in 1919.
Possessed of a winning person.
ality. DR.. Morgan helped to sell"
the university to the people of
Tennessee. Two years before he
became president he had aided in
obtaining 81 million apropria-
ton from the State legislature for
building program. It was the
nrst appropriation of any con-
sequence for the institution. From
then on the university continued
to grow both at the main branch
IN Knoxville and the medical
school in Memphis.
DR.. Morgan was born at Strath-
roy. Ontario, Canada. August 21.
1867. He married Miss Sara Eliz-
aoetn Fay OF Baton Rouge, La,
Junee25. 1895. They had two sons
and two daughters.