Six Degrees of Shirley: San Diego's Neil Morgan

Sorry for the Shirley Temple overload folks, but I'll just warn you now...it will probably continue for a bit. Today, author Rita Dubas shared a little tidbit that should appeal to ST and San Diego admirers alike. As she tells it:

"I wanted to send two images of an item that made me think of you with your San Diego connection—I ran across this 45 rpm record a couple of years ago and did some research at the time on Neil Morgan, a San Diego Tribune columnist/author. I looked him up again yesterday, and discovered that he passed just 10 days before Shirley, at age 89! Not sure why Shirley is pictured on the 45 sleeve; I think the other woman is Morgan’s wife, Judith. I’m assuming they were friends, and this must date from the mid-60s with the Dr. Strangelove reference. It seems he was an accomplished pianist, all snark on the record notes aside."

Never heard of Neil Morgan? He was an award-winning newsman, author, and San Diego media icon recently passed away at the age of 89.

“He loved this city. He nagged it,” wife Judith Morgan said Saturday evening.

He wrote for the San Diego Tribune from 1950—1992 in positions including columnist and editor. He continued writing at The San Diego Union-Tribune, the newspaper created from the merger of the San Diego Union and the Tribune, and later for the nonprofit Voice of San Diego, a news and opinion website that he helped start.

“If it’s important and it happened — or is about to happen — in San Diego, odds are it will show up in Morgan’s column first,” San Diego Magazine noted in 1981.

He and his wife collaborated on several magazine articles and books, including “Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography,” an authorized biography of writer and illustrator Ted Geisel.

“We were blessed because we were married almost 50 years and had the joy of respecting each other, loving each other and writing together,” his wife said.



See more vintage Shirley Temple Black photos on my main website.