William F. Morrison

William F. Morrison WHITMAN William F. Morrison, died Friday, Oct. 24, 2008, at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital. He was 84. He was born in Whitman. Bill served in the U. S. Marine Corps during World War II in the Pacific, during which he was severely burned in a bombardment. It produced in him a longtime concern for the security of the United States. Upon discharge from the service, he moved to California and worked part-time at the U.S. Post Office, while in college. Bill spent most of his working life promoting conservative issues, especially in the area of intelligence and national security. The famous name associated with Proposition 13 (property tax relief) in California in the 1960s was Howard Jarvis, but Jarvis was the public spokesman; it was Bill who was the backroom strategist, publicist and fund-raiser. Over the years, he had become co-owner and publisher of one of the main Republican newspapers in California. In later years, Bill was heavily involved in campaign strategy and fund-raising for numerous state and federal elections, which provided him with many high-level contacts. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was involved with General Daniel Graham's High Frontier organization, which advocated for President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative and with former FBI Asst. Director (Counter-intelligence) Ray Wannall's Security and Intelligence Foundation, composed of retired FBI and CIA executives who were enabled (by their retirement) to now speak publicly in defense of those agencies. Bill didn't slow down much in his retirement years and turned his attention to issues of family and education. His Christian Family Foundation helped parents deal with drug use by their children and lobbied for the restoration of the '3 Rs' in public education. Up until his death, he was still working, this time to establish a scholarship fund for foreign language training for those seeking careers in our defense and intelligence agencies. Bill never sought publicity or honors for himself; he just wanted to get the job done. Rest in peace. Brother of the late Harold and Evelyn Morrison, he is survived by his cousin, Robert Morrison of Whitman; and friends, Judy and her husband Dan Crowley and family of Rockland, Frank O'Leary of St. John's, Newfoundland, Eve Jones Oxnard, Calif., and Len Stanley. Funeral from the MacKinnon Funeral Home, 760 Washington St., Whitman, Wednesday at 7:45 a.m., followed by a funeral Mass in Holy Ghost Church, in Whitman, at 9 a.m. Interment at Massachusetts National Cemetery, in Bourne, at 11:15 a.m. To sign the guest book, visit www.mackinnonfuneral.com.