Three Forks of the Kentucky River Historical Association

Biography

Morris M. Garrett

Submitted by Tucker Bowling from an article on Dr. Garrett's death from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

By Betsy Kirkpatrick - The Cincinnati Enquirer

DR. MORRIS McMULLEN GARRETT was born in Booneville, Ky, and attended school in Booneville and at Model High in Berea.

After graduating from Eastern Kentucky University, Dr. Garrett enlisted in the Marine Corps in the summer of 1941 and, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, served as a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant and sent overseas in 1942. He was in some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific Theater. He was wounded and promoted to captain and returned to the states in 1944. He recuperated at the Marine Corps facility in Klamath Falls, Ore., and was discharged as a major. He met Nelle Gardner there and they were married May 25, 1945.

After the war, Dr. Garrett graduated from the University of Louisville Medical School. He interned at the University of Cincinnati and did his radiology residency at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Garrett began practicing radiology in 1952 and was in charge of the Radiation Department of St. Luke Hospital in Fort Thomas. When he retired in 1992. the department was dedicated in his name.

Dr. Fred Stine of Fort Thomas, a colleague at St. Luke, said, “He helped me become coroner 40 years ago. He was always on the ball. He was a very brilliant man and a good friend of mine.”

Dr. Garrett served as assistant coroner for Campbell County and was the initial officer-in-charge of the identification of bodies and investigation of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire. He was active in the Committee of 500 to fight corruption in Northern Kentucky.

He was the founding president of the Campbell County YMCA and served on its board of directors.

Dr. Garrett was a member of the board of directors for the Kentucky chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He was instrumental in securing the donation of Pilot Knob, the spot from which Daniel Boone is believed to have first viewed the Bluegrass region of Kentucky.

Dr. Garrett was president of the Northern Kentucky Medical Society and head of the Northern Kentucky civil defense organization. He was on the board of directors of the Ephriam McDowell House in Danville, Ky. He also served on the boards of the Filson Society and the Kentucky Historical Society.

He was a team doctor for the Fort Thomas Highlands Bluebird football teams in the late 1960s and was a Kentucky Colonel.

He was proud of his Appalachian heritage and often lectured to civic clubs and at Northern Kentucky University.

He donated his Kentucky history collection of oral histories and photographs of life in the Appalachian hill country of Eastern Kentucky to NKU.

“He was always on the go, always doing something. He always took day trips to travel the state of Kentucky,” said his son, Peter Garrett of Fort Thomas.

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