Inducted: November 29, 1989
George Morris has made a contribution to the beef cattle industry that has brought him recognition and honour from cattlemen across Canada.
Mr. Morris started early to develop his free enterprise convictions; convictions that would motivate his life. A native of High River, Alberta, he found himself responsible for much of the family operation at 14, after the death of his father in a train accident.
In Kent County, he farmed west of Fletcher in Tilbury East Township. This practical farming experience was the genesis for the innovative ideas he brought to agriculture.
Mr. Morris helped develop the regulations governing the standard evaluation of beef carcasses, which became a pattern for the new Canadian beef grading system in 1972.
Mr. Morris was a founding member of the Ontario Grain Corn Council, and an early believer in the great potential for corn production. He was the first in Ontario to use urea as an additive with corn silage.
Mr. Morris served as a long-term Director of the Ontario Beef Improvement Association, and was its President from 1964-1965. He went on to become a Director of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, and was its President from 1972-1974. He started the Merlin Rotary Club's beef barbecue in 1948, the first of its kind in Eastern Canada. This type of leadership was very typical of his promotion of both beef and his community.
Mr. Morris received an Ontario Agricultural College Centennial Medal in 1974; and a Kent Federation of Agriculture Meritorious Award in 1980. As well, he received the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food Centennial Award in 1988.
Mr. Morris' most recent honour was having a $2.5 million market-oriented centre at the University of Guelph bear his name. The George Morris Centre for Agriculture and the Future will be a moving force in the type of progressive agriculture this Fletcher-area farmer has supported.
Mr. Morris' speaking engagements have taken him from Kamloops to Charlottetown. He is an honorary member of the Ontario Institute of Agrologists, and received recognition from the rural and urban community when he was named Chatham & District Chamber of Commerce Agriculturalist of the Year in 1980.