Stephen Ray Morton

Born to Ray and Thelma Morton on March 21, 1950, in Seattle, WA. Steve grew up in the North End of Seattle and spent a great deal of time in his youth playing in Carkeek Park, which was literally in his back yard. Steve had an idyllic childhood, coming home each day to loving parents and his Grandmother Ellen’s fresh baked cookies. After graduating from Blanchet High School in Seattle, he made his own version of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road trip. Traveling the entire breadth of the US, Steve made many friends and learned much, which made for interesting and sometimes hilarious stories he shared with all. He was renowned for his conversational skills and was always entertaining.
Steve worked for the Northshore School District for 4 years and then began a career at the University of Washington in September 1979 as a Carpenter, then Carpenter Lead in November 1992, promoting to Maintenance & Construction Coordinator in January 1995, next was Project Manager in July 1999 and on to the Facilities Maintenance Enterprise Manager in 2002 until his retirement in August 2012.
Steve was a multi-talented individual who could build or fix anything. He helped numerous of his friends and relatives with construction projects, remodels, car repair and landscaping. Not to mention his extremely high-level technical skills with all manner of electronics and computers. It appears there was really nothing he couldn’t do with his hands or his brain.
An avid reader, Steve enjoyed learning, especially about philosophies of others. His book collection ranges from the mundane to the extremely technical. He was self-taught in many aspects of his skills and interests (computers and sailing, to name a few), finding even upper-level mathematic textbooks extremely fascinating.
Steve married Leslie F. Anderson on December 30, 1986, in Santiago, Colima, Mexico, much to the surprise and delight of their traveling companions as they had decided to turn a long-planned vacation into an elopement and honeymoon. Steve and Leslie divorced in 2002 and remained the very best of friends and helpmates throughout the rest of his life.
Preceded in death by his grandparents, and parents, Steve is survived by his brother Scott Morton (Debbie), nephew Blake Morton and niece Andrea Pedersen.
Steve was able to realize his lifelong dream of being a liveaboard boater when he moved to Port Orchard a couple of years ago. He was also able to indulge in his other dream of buying and selling antiques by being part of the group of vendors at Wisteria Lane in downtown Port Orchard. His numerous friends among the boating community and local townsfolk will miss him greatly.
This quote from Kerouac sums up Steve’s life very well: My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them. His passions were many and he had yet to finish exploring…..