Morris Family Fonds, Trinity, Trinity Bay NL

• Morris, Stephen Rupert

Stephen Rupert Morris was born in Carbonear on August 3, 1917, to Fred J. Morris and Winifred (Hollands) Morris. He was the eldest of three children, Barbara Jean born in 1920 and Eric Roy in 1922. His Newfoundland roots go back to a great grandfather who arrived at Trinity in 1765 from Carnarvon in Wales.

He completed his high school education and went on to St. John’s where he attended Memorial University College for two years before returning home in 1936 to enter the family business. On April 17, 1941 Rupert joined the Canadian Army and served in the Royal Canadian Engineers in Canada and Overseas until the end of 1945 when he was discharged. He then completed a year of business school at the Maritime Business College at Halifax and returned home in 1946 to rejoin the family business, and oversaw the change over to Morris & Co. In 1947 he married Jean Barbour and they had one child, Ian Roy.

In 1948 Rupert and his father opened Trinity Cabins, the first tourist cabins in Newfoundland, which were operated by Rupert until 1995 when due to poor health he was forced to retire. The Cabins were subsequently sold and purchased by Glenn and Correine Johnson of Trouty and are still in operation.

Rupert’s father died in 1961 and Rupert carried on the company (Morris & Co.) until 1970, when changing times, coupled with a decline in the trading area population, made the continued operation of the company on a much smaller scale unwarranted.

In 1964 the Trinity Historic Sites Committee was formed at Trinity and Rupert became its first president. Following a successful archival display which was put on by the committee for “Come Home Year” in 1966, the Trinity Historical Society was formed in November of that year. Rupert was elected to the position of president and held this office until 1995. On January 8, 2000, at the age of 82, he passed away at the Health Sciences Centre, St. John’s.

Created - August 26, 2013

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