DONALD P. MORRISON, LTJG, USN

Donald Morrison '06

Date of birth: February 11, 1887

Date of death: October 1, 1912

Age: 25

Lucky Bag

From the 1906 Lucky Bag:

Donald Pettit Morrison

Washington, D.C.

"Don"

Long, lean and lanky from long walks on liberty days. Used to take voyages before all the most important hops, but kept his grease, anyway. Gray hairs has he in plenty, because, owing to his extreme youth plebe year he could not "Dodge" temptation. Enjoys going to chapel so much that he sat in front of the old chapel one Saturday night till the last dance, and then wondered why everybody was leaving the hop so early. Laughs in chunks. One of the third floor bunch with all their habits, but did not bilge. Used to go swimming in his best service uniform with Leigh and Kirby. Is never found wanting.

Buzzard (1); One stripe (1); Lucky Bag Committee Christmas Card Committee; Santee.

Donald Pettit Morrison

Washington, D.C.

"Don"

Long, lean and lanky from long walks on liberty days. Used to take voyages before all the most important hops, but kept his grease, anyway. Gray hairs has he in plenty, because, owing to his extreme youth plebe year he could not "Dodge" temptation. Enjoys going to chapel so much that he sat in front of the old chapel one Saturday night till the last dance, and then wondered why everybody was leaving the hop so early. Laughs in chunks. One of the third floor bunch with all their habits, but did not bilge. Used to go swimming in his best service uniform with Leigh and Kirby. Is never found wanting.

Buzzard (1); One stripe (1); Lucky Bag Committee Christmas Card Committee; Santee.

Loss

Donald was lost on October 1, 1912 when a steam turbine exploded aboard USS Walke (Destroyer No. 34) while underway near Newport, Rhode Island.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Donald was a native of Piedmont, Missouri.
He married Golda Chase Munroe on April 29, 1911, in St. Anne's Protestant Episcopal Church in Annapolis. He was stationed on the Kansas at the time.
His father was Major Jasper Newton Morrison, President Taft's judge advocate in the Philippines and assistant judge advocate general of the U. S. Army. His mother was Marie Janet (Pettit). Donald was survived by four aunts and four cousins.

He was survived by his wife, who went on to marry five other Naval Academy graduates. From the January-February 1975 issue of Shipmate:

"I thought I had been reading the older class columns in Shipmate rather carefully, but I have failed to see any mention of the death in April of my fabulous cousin, Golda Munroe Morrison Burdick Nixon Kenyon Gill Haggard, in Tucson…
Golda was the oldest daughter of my uncle James M. Munroe of Annapolis, and the sister of Emily Munroe McNair '05, Louise Munroe Reifsnider '10, and Adele Munroe Henry '12. Golda married Donald Morrison '06, who was killed on board WALKE in 1912; married Harold Burdick '09, who died in the flu epidemic of 1919; married Warren Nixon '07, who died in 1923; married George Kenyon '07 and divorced him; married and divorced (twice, I think) Charles C. (Pop) Gill '07; and married Robert Haggard '12 about 1961, who died in 1966. Golda was 88 when she died." Frank A. Munroe, Jr. '25

He is buried in the Naval Academy Cemetery.

Photographs

From the St. Louis Globe Democrat on October 2, 1912

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.