Dear OE/ICA Global Colleagues,
It is with deep sadness, and permission from the family, that I share the news that our dear colleague and longtime personal friend of the the Crocker family, David Morton, passed away on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2023. David contracted a rapidly progressing form of pneumonia that did not respond to massive doses of antibiotics, and his breathing failed.
David and his first wife, Betsy (deceased 1989), were members of the EI/OE community from 1967 - 1978, serving in assignments in various places in the US and Australia. David, a committed researcher, teacher and voracious reader, significantly expanded our Order’s outreach to understand the “new quantum sciences” and their intersection with theology in the years he was a Prior of our Research Centrum in Chicago. He also served on the Global Panchayat, and was one of the major writers/editors of The Order Polity Document, at the request of our founder and Dean, Joseph Mathews, (just before Joe's death in 1977), to “pull together the fundamental operating principles and foundational understandings of our experimental family religious order.”
My husband Joe and I were blessed to have been assigned to work with the Morton family both in Chicago, and in Sydney, Australia — and continued our friendship after 1988 when the OE was called out of being, and many of us continued to live out our commitment to serve those in need in many different ways. Joe officiated at the lovely marriage of David and his wife, Denney, in 1991 and we have continued to be close friends, especially as it became more possible when Joe and I moved to Maine in 1999.
David and Betsy’s children, Kim Morton Case and Luke Morton, and Denney’s three daughters from a previous marriage, Kate, Julie and Susan all are gathering around to support their blended family in this time of loss.
I’m sure messages of condolence to David’s wife and family will be deeply appreciated: Mrs. David Morton, Apt. 2A. 18 Blueberry Lane, Falmouth, ME 04105. Cell: 207-400-9955. Email: denneymorton@gmail.com <mailto:denneymorton@gmail.com>; or Kim Morton Case, E mail: casebkim@gmail.com <mailto:casebkim@gmail.com>
With abundant gratitude for David’s life and his gifts to us all, I offer this — and will send additional information as the family requests.
Grace and peace,
Marilyn Crocker