[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 98 (Monday, July 7, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  IN MEMORY OF RICHARD ``DICK'' MORGAN, RETIRED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF 
                                  FHWA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, July 7, 2003

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to share with our colleagues the recent 
passing of Richard D. ``Dick'' Morgan, who retired in 1989 as executive 
director of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the highest 
civil service post in the FHWA. He died on June 18 at a hospital in 
Easton, MD, following a year long battle with leukemia. He was 69.
  Many of our colleagues who have been here for a while will remember 
Dick Morgan as the highway expert who helped steer the reauthorization 
of the federal highway program in 1982, which included a motor fuel tax 
increase, the first in more than two decades, to fund repairs for what 
was described then as the nation's crumbling highways and bridges.
  Mr. Morgan received a B.S. degree in civil engineering, graduating 
with honors from Michigan State University in 1956. The following year 
he began his federal career as a highway engineer trainee with the 
Bureau of Public Roads, the FHWA's predecessor agency. Except for a 
stint in the U.S. Army from 1957-58, he stayed with the agency until he 
retired.
  Over the years, Dick Morgan, a registered professional engineer, held 
a variety of positions at FHWA. After serving in the Arkansas, Ohio, 
and Texas divisions, he joined the Washington headquarters staff in 
1972 as chief of Special Procedures Branch in the Federal-Aid Division. 
He became chief of that division and later was name director of the 
Office of Highway Planning before being appointed associate 
administrator for engineering and operations in 1979. In that slot, he 
helped develop a program that saved $225 million in bridge construction 
costs and shepherded a national traffic signal timing demonstration 
program, which has been credited with saving millions of gallons of 
fuel.
  After assuming the executive director position in 1982, Dick Morgan 
is widely credited with helping to move the FHWA from an era of highway 
expansion to an era of highway preservation. He was one of the 
originators and strongest supporters of the Strategic Highway Research 
Program developed to identify pavement design and maintenance 
techniques that work--and those that don't work. That program has 
evolved over the years to help highway agencies across the nation 
provide smoother, longer lasting roads.
  Mr. Morgan also was a strong backer of innovative techniques for 
increasing highway capacity, such as ``smart'' highways, surveillance 
systems, and computer applications which today are working to reduce 
traffic congestion in the nation's urban areas.
  Having played a major role in the construction of the National System 
of Interstate and Defense Highways, Dick Morgan was deeply involved in 
the FHWA's efforts to plan for the post-Interstate era. With the 
Interstate program coming to an end in the 1990's, he formed a 
``Futures Task Force'' to identify and study alternatives for the 
Department of Transportation's legislative initiatives and also worked 
with organizations such as the American Association of State Highway 
and Transportation Officials to develop post-Interstate proposals.
  Dick Morgan received many honors during his career. His first 
recognition was a cash award in 1959. Over the years, he received the 
Secretary's Award for Superior Achievement (1974), the Senior Executive 
Service Performance Award on several occasions, and the Federal Highway 
Administrator's Award for Superior Achievement (1983). In 1982, he 
received the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive and in 
1987 he was given the President Rank Award of Distinguished Executive. 
The American Public Works Association recognized Mr. Morgan as one of 
the Top Ten Public Works Leaders of the Year in 1988.
  When he retired from the FHWA in 1989, he became vice president of 
the National Asphalt Pavement Association in Washington, where he 
remained until 1998.
  Mr. Morgan was born in Cleveland and raised in Royal Oak, MI. In 
addition to his degree from Michigan State, he received a J.D. degree 
from the Capital School of Law in Columbus, Ohio.
  After living in Anne Arundel County, MD, he moved in the late 1990s 
to Maryland's Eastern Shore community of Easton Club. He remained 
active in the community, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in 
Talbot County and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, 
MD, where he was a docent.
  He was a member of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Easton, 
where his funeral service was held on June 25. We express our 
sympathies to his wife of 45 years, Anna Louise Morgan of Easton, and 
their three children, Thomas Richard Morgan of Oakland, CA, Karen Ann 
Yocum of Churchton, MD, and Anthony Patrick Morgan of Liberty, SC, his 
three brothers, a sister, and three grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, we remember Dick Morgan as the ultimate professional 
whose public service career left a legacy of unparalleled achievement, 
providing the example for those at the Federal Highway Administration 
today to follow.

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