Lt. Col. Patrick John Morgan USMC Ret.

August 20, 1938 - December 1, 2020

Patrick (“Pat”) John Morgan, decorated Vietnam War veteran, former top prosecutor in the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office and former Chairman of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board died December 1 in Leesburg, VA, from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 82. Lt. Col. Morgan was born in Antigo, WI in 1938, and raised in Green Bay, WI. As a child he frequently spent summers working on his grandparents’ farm near Antigo using a horse drawn plow to till the fields. While in elementary school he saw the movie, “The Sands of Iwo Jima”, and decided he would one day enter the United States Marine Corps. He attended St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI, where he played football, as a ball-hawking defensive back, and ran track, completing a B.A. in History in 1961. After graduation he entered the Marine Corps and was commissioned in April 1961. In 1966-67, he was deployed to Vietnam, where he commanded Battery I of the 11th Marine Brigade. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V for Valor for his actions on March 24, 1967, when his battery “came under intense enemy mortar and recoilless rifle attack.” Because the communication lines within the battery were severed, then Captain Morgan “unhesitatingly left his place of relative safety to alert the battery and commence counter fire.” Further, “disregarding his own safety, [he] moved along the gun positions, encouraging his men and directing their fire … which subsequently destroyed the enemy position.” His commendation also noted “Captain Morgan repeatedly exposed himself to intense enemy fire to shout words of encouragement to his men and supervise the evacuation of the wounded.” In addition, Lt. Col Morgan was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal for his for his meritorious service during his entire Vietnam War tour, particularly for serving as the artillery liaison with the Korean Marine Corps in Vietnam. Lt. Col Morgan always felt that the Korean Marine Corps’ contributions in Vietnam have been insufficiently recognized. After returning from Vietnam, Lt. Col. Morgan continued his Marine Corps career, attending the Armed Forces Staff College and the Amphibious Warfare School where he later became an instructor on counter-insurgency. Lt. Col. Morgan completed his military service as a member of the Inspector General team, traveling world-wide to ensure the readiness of Marine units everywhere until he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in April 1981. During his last year in the Marine Corps, Lt. Col. Morgan began attending Catholic University School of Law in Washington, DC, which he graduated in May 1982. While in Virginia during his military service, Lt. Col Morgan became close friends with the late Hon. Lee R. West because of a shared passion for bird dogs and quail hunting. Judge West encouraged him to move to Oklahoma upon his military retirement. Continuing his public service following his law school graduation, Lt. Col. Morgan joined the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office under the Hon. Robert H. Macy. During his tenure in the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office, Lt. Col. Morgan rose from Assistant District Attorney to Chief of the White-Collar Crime Unit to Mr. Macy’s First Assistant. Significant homicide cases Lt. Col Morgan prosecuted included Bigler Jobe Stouffer for the 1985 attempted murder of his girlfriend’s estranged husband and murder of his girlfriend, and Billy Ray Fox and Mark Fowler for the execution-style murders of three victims at the Edmond IGA grocery store in 1986. Lt. Col. Morgan also led the investigation and prosecution of Gov. David Walters in 1993, for campaign contribution violations. One of Lt. Col. Morgan’s most significant contributions was to lead the state grand jury investigation in 1997-98 of the Murrah Building bombing, which ultimately concluded there was insufficient evidence “to indict any additional co-conspirators” and that there was no government cover-up relating to the bombing or investigation. Lt. Col. Morgan retired from the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office in 1999. Not quite finished with his public service, in May 1999, Lt. Col Morgan was appointed by Gov. Frank Keating to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board and eventually became its Chairman. Noteworthy cases heard while Lt. Col. Morgan was on the Pardon and Parole Board included Phillip Dewitt Smith and Hung Le, both of whom the board recommended for commutations to life sentences from capital sentences. Lt. Col Morgan retired from the Pardon and Parole Board in 2008. An avid outdoorsman and sports enthusiast, Pat Morgan’s interests were as varied as his professional career. In Wisconsin, he grew up fly-fishing for trout in the summer, hunting grouse in the fall, and deer in the winter. Pat Morgan played and coached semi-professional football with the San Diego Sabres in the early 1960’s. While he was stationed in Virginia in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s he developed two divergent interests, duck hunting and motocross, in which he competed professionally. The duck hunting led him to get a Weimaraner, which in turn led him to what would become a lifelong passion for training bird dogs. After training Weimaraners for several years he switched to German Short-Haired Pointers and then, in the mid-1970’s, to English Pointers. He trained field champions in all three breeds, won the Region 8 All Age Championship in 1994, and numerous Oklahoma Dog of the Year Awards. He also served as the President of both the Oklahoma Field Trial Clubs Association and Oklahoma Amateur Field Trial Association. As a long-time member of River Oaks Country Club, Pat Morgan also had two holes-in-one. Lt. Col. Morgan married Judith Ann Redmond on December 30, 1961, in Green Bay, WI. They had two sons, Sean and Curtis. Ms. Morgan is the retired Law Library Director for Oklahoma City University School of Law and a Professor Emeritus. Sean is a Senior Trial Attorney with the Department of the Navy. Curtis preceded his father in death. Lt. Col. Morgan also is survived by a daughter-in-law, Kelly, his beloved grandchildren, Meaghan and Colin, a sister, Julia Morgan Winters and two brothers, Janner Morgan and Tom Morgan. A brother, Larry Morgan, and a sister, Lynn Morgan, preceded Patrick in death. The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made in the name of Lt. Col. Patrick J. Morgan to Freedom Service Dogs (freedomservicedogs.org), 7193 S Dillon Court, Englewood, CO 80112. Phone (303) 922-6231. An interment service for Lt. Col. Morgan’s ashes with full military honors is being planned for Summer 2021, at the Quantico National Cemetery in Triangle, VA.