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SUBJECT: Russell Bryant Morgan
AUTHOR: Scott Shackford
NEWSPAPER: Desert Dispatch, Barstow, CA
DATE: Tuesday, September 6, 2005
SECTION: Local PAGE: __ COLUMN: __
NOTES: archived article
BY SCOTT SCHACKFORD - city editor
BARSTOW -- Personal tragedy prompted Russell Morgan's move to Barstow, but opportunity has kept him here.
Morgan, now 32, was a construction worker in Sylacauga, Ala., in November 2001 when he was critically injured. A car struck him while he was standing in a parking lot and then drove off. He suffered a broken neck, broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and fractured pelvis, he said.
"They told me I was one-eighth of an inch away from being paralyzed," Morgan said. "After that news, I was pretty happy I could get up and walk."
He moved to Barstow to be with family to recuperate from the injury. Now, he says he's recovered for the most part, though there's some occasional residual pain.
But he hasn't returned to Alabama, nor his career in construction. Instead, he has decided to go to college and will likely earn his associate's degree from Barstow Community College in the spring.
Staff photo by Scott Shackford
Russell Morgan, who moved to Barstow to recuperate from injuries from a hit-and-run incident, now volunteers at the Mojave River Valley Museum as he studies to earn an associate's degree from Barstow Community College.
"I thought I would do construction all my life," Morgan said. "The accident changed all of that."
Morgan said he thought that a college education was out of reach for somebody like him, but then discovered financial assistance that would make it possible.
On Saturday, Morgan had a textbook open at the front desk of Mojave River Valley Museum, where he volunteers. He has become involved and interested in Barstow's past and future. His interest in animals and the desert has prompted him to pursue a degree in environmental science.
"I see so many people killing snakes and stuff like that," he said. "I want to preserve as much as possible."
Morgan's plan is to get his bachelor's degree at Humboldt State University or California State University in Long Beach. Then he wants to return to Barstow to assist in preservation and environmental efforts out here.
"You've got to keep (the environment) for future generations," he said. "There are too many people who don't know anything, and kill things just because. Once they're gone, they're gone."
Even when he worked in construction, Morgan was interested in environmental issues.
"I've always been the guy who likes to go out at night and catch snakes," he said. He originally planned to major in liberal arts to become a teacher on environmental issues, but then decided on a more direct career.
In addition to his volunteer work at the Mojave River Valley Museum, Morgan also assists his mother, Donna Zeller, at the Mojave Valley Volunteer Hospice by delivering meals to the elderly twice a week.
Though born in Los Angeles, Morgan said he's grown accustomed to Barstow's more intimate size.
"I like it here," he said. "I really like the small town."
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