Second Lake Service Award Presented
Article Date: Monday, June 19, 2006
Written By: Russell Rawlings
Gray Wilson, left, presents award to Jim Morgan. |
High Point attorney James F. “Jim” Morgan, a former state legislator who has served in volunteer leadership roles for more than 50 local and statewide organizations,
is the second recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Dr. I. Beverly Lake Sr. Public Service Award.
The award was presented on Saturday morning, June 17, during the General Session of the 2006 NCBA Annual Meeting in Atlantic Beach. G. Gray Wilson of Winston-Salem, immediate past president and chair of the Past Presidents’ Council, made the presentation.
A partner throughout most of his career in the law firm of Morgan, Herring, Morgan, Green, Rosenblutt & Gill, L.L.P., which was started by his father following World War II, Morgan may well be without peer when it comes to community service and volunteer leadership.
Among his countless accomplishments, Morgan helped found the High Point Community Foundation in 1990. A 1961 High Point High School graduate who captained the football team his senior year, Morgan has embraced seemingly every call for service and leadership that has come his way.
Morgan is a 1966 graduate of Guilford College and received his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., in 1968. He was recently honored by Guilford as the 2006 alumni recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for distinguished service.
Morgan’s first official leadership position was a two-year term as chairman of the board of High Point Legal Services. He also served as president of the High Point Heart Association and the High Point Jaycees during this time, earning the distinction of North Carolina’s Outstanding Local Jaycee President for 1972-73.
Later named president of the N.C. Jaycees, Morgan was targeted for national Jaycee leadership roles until friends and colleagues in High Point talked him into representing Guilford County in the N.C. House of Representatives, which he did from 1977-82.
Morgan was named Young Man of the Year by the City of High Point in 1973-74, the same year in which he was honored as one of five Outstanding Young Men in the State of North Carolina. He received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the High Point Chamber of Commerce in 1988 and was named Citizen of the Year by High Point in 1991.
The High Point Human Relations Commission named him Humanitarian of the Year in 2002.
Morgan has served as president of the High Point Bar Association and the 18th Judicial District Bar, and as chairman of the board of trustees and president of the foundation for Guilford Technical Community College. He has also held leadership positions within the N.C. State Bar and the N.C. Bar Association.
Morgan and his wife, Ann, have two grown children, daughter “Lea” Morgan Pflaging of Rochester, N.Y., and son James F. “Jef” Morgan II of High Point, and six grandchildren.
Creation of the Lake Service Award, which annually recognizes an outstanding lawyer in North Carolina who has performed exemplary public service in his or her community, accompanied the establishment of the I. Beverly Lake Sr. Justice Fund in 2004.
The voluntary service rendered by the recipient of the Lake Public Service Award may have occurred with a single non-profit organization or with a number of groups in the community as well as through public service in elective or appointive office.
Nominations are sought from all judicial districts and voluntary bars statewide and reviewed by the NCBA Past Presidents’ Council. Recipients will have their names inscribed on the Lake Public Service Award plaque that will remain on permanent display at the N.C. Bar Center. They will also receive an honorarium of $2,500 that will be designated to the non-profit organization of their choosing, subject to the concurrence of the NCBA.